Once upon a Summertime
by VictoriaBard
Summary: It's the summer of 1991. Four children; Ziva, Tony, Abby and Tim, travel away from their homes to stay with Special Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Jenny Shepard in a little white house with old fashioned, blue painted shutters in a friendly neighborhood.
1. Chapter 1

**_Title: Once upon a summer time_**

**_Disclaimer:I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story. _**

_**Author's Notes:** Hello to you who are reading this. I hope you will enjoy this story that I'm working on at the moment. The idea came to me a couple of months ago and ever since I've been writing it in my head, which has been making me really happy so I wanted to try and write it down for real and post it here. This is supposed to be a "feel good" story so to speak. And by that I mean a story that is supposed to give the reader a feeling of happiness. _

_This story is not only written for adults who love NCIS but it's also supposed to be suitable for kids and younger teens. There will be a lot of humor in the story, which I think the characters on the show automatically bring just by being the way they are, and I've tried to work with them the same way here. _

_The story itself takes place mainly in Washington D.C. It's the summer of 1991 and four kids travel away from their families and lives to stay with Special Agents Jeroy Jethro Gibbs and Jenny Shepard. A couple who, when they are not working to catch bad guys, share a life in a little white house with blue shutters in a friendly neighborhood. _

_The kids, Tony, Ziva, Tim and Abby,learn the value of true friendship and trust in people, as they run around, play games and sometimes accidentally create mischief of different sorts throughout the summer. However there are dangers lurking in D.C too and somehow it manages to find its way to the four adventurers who then has to stand together in order to get out of it. _

_This is the way I believe the relationship would have been like between Gibbs and Tony, Ziva, Abby and McGee if he had met them while they were still little kids. I always liked Gibbs and Jenny together on the show and wouldn't have objected had they ever become a couple again onscreen. So in this story they are a couple since a little while after Jenny had completed her training as a probie for Gibbs. On the show Jenny stayed behind in Europe and Gibbs went back to the U.S to continue working as a Special Agent there. However, in this story they have recently finished the assignment in Europe and then traveled home together._

_Before letting you get into the first chapter of the story I'd just like to add that I will be doing my best to stay true to the characters and the way they are on the show. But since I'm trying to portray them the way I believe they would have been like as children then of course I have to make some changes to them. After all they haven't grown up yet, and as we all know all kids have to be allowed their time to grow up ;) No rush. _

_For this story I've chosen the Gibbs we see in seasons one and two. That's the way I like him best. I've also always loved the way he is with kids and that's the way he will be with Tony, Ziva, Tim and Abby here. He also never had Kelly and was never married to Shannon, since we never knew anything about them in seasons one and two. Jenny is the Jenny we see in season three when she first appears, except I've made her slightly softer since I suspect she was like that earlier in her life before she took on the heavy role as Director. Gibbs and Jenny are of course also younger in the story than they are on the show since this is supposed to be approximately one year after their assignment in Europe. Their house in the story is not the same house Gibbs has on the show. _

_All that said, I hope you enjoy this story and please send me a pm if you have requests, ideas, criticism or just feel like saying hi. Also, please review and let me know what you think. _

_Thanks for reading. _

_**CHAPTER 1**_

_**On the move**_

In a friendly neighborhood, at 1242 Pine road, Washington DC, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs stood with his hands at his sides staring out at the backyard of the little white house with blue old fashioned shutters he shared with his fiance Jenny Shepard. To them it was home. After having been stationed in Europe for several months and having to constantly be on their guard, it was even more home now that they had returned to it than before they had taken the assignment abroad.

The gentle morning sunlight warmed his skin as he stood directly in the only spot in the backyard that had sun that early in the day. He sipped his strong coffee and felt energy begin to return to him. It was a big day. The day him and Jenny would meet their summer kids. It was the first time they tried having kids stay with them since they became a couple. He had had some experience on his own before though. But that was a long time ago as a Marine when he had entered a program that was looking for adults willing to take in a troubled child for a couple of weeks during the summer. He had expected a real difficult kid that time but had ended up with a very shy boy that hardly spoke to him the first few days. Eventually they had gotten along great and there had been no trouble what so ever during the boy's stay with him.

He got along good with kids. He always had. But he had never before been responsible for four at the same time for so long. He hoped it would go as smoothly this time as well, but his gut was telling him it might prove more of a challenge this time around.

His mind returned to the present as he felt a hand squeeze his shoulder reassuringly. He had been expecting the touch the past fifteen seconds since he heard Jenny exit the kitchen door, go down the porch steps and start treading quietly across the lawn.

She smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I thought maybe I had you this time. Your ability to always hear me sneak up on you is close to scary, Jethro."

He chuckled and covered her hand with his. The ability to hear people approach him was a skill he had picked up during his days as a Marine corps sniper. He wasn't planning on letting go of it either. It often came in handy in his current line of work as an NCIS Special Agent.

"This is going to work out just fine, Jethro. You'll see." Jenny smiled encouragingly at him. She had been telling him that for the past month not completely sure what was going on inside that head of his the entire time. She knew he wasn't against the decision and that he too wanted to take the kids. But it had originally been her idea and he had made her consider every obstacle and challenge that having the kids come stay with them for an entire summer might bring, before agreeing to her idea.

The couple retreated to the kitchen to have their quiet breakfast before heading to the airport a couple of hours later to pick up two of the kids.

**========%%%Same time, different locations%%%============**

**_Ziva Elisenda David's POV:_**

I glanced out the window at the airport underneath me that just kept on shrinking into nothingness. The next thing I knew we were above the clouds and I could no longer see the airport in Tel Aviv. Now all I could see was a big white quilt. It was beautiful, but also a little frightening at the same time. I was seated by the window on the airplane that was taking me very far away from my home Israel for the first time that I can was back when I was only twelve years old. Back when my father was doing his one year in prison for a felony he swore to me he had not committed, not long before he took over as the head of Mossad operations, and back when my mother decided it was time for me to spend some time away from my father and his and his people's influence on me. My name is Ziva Elisenda David, and that was the summer of 1991. The summer I spent in Washington D.C in the care of Special Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Jenny Shepard together with three other kids who became very close to me. Not at first though.

**_Anthony Santo DiNozzo's POV:_**

Buildings, buildings and more buildings. They flashed by outside the window of the bus that I was confined to that hot summer day. It was June 6th 1991 and I was on my way to the airport to get on a plane that would take me to the place I had been told would be my home for the upcoming three months. It didn't sound too bad to get away for a while since my dad would be off to the Cayman Islands for most of the summer anyway. At least this summer I would not be left with the maid. But what was to say I wouldn't be left alone in this new place instead, nothing. Oh well, if things got too bad I figured I could always just run away or go home. Already back then I made my own decisions and I was used to being on my own and fending for myself. Although I did have a strange way of finding myself up to my ears in trouble that I had somehow created myself, though I never really knew how it happened.

My name is Anthony Santo DiNozzo Jr. and this is the story of how I ended up in Washington D.C one summer under the care of two Federal Agents named Gibbs and Jenny.

**_Abigail Lily Sciuto's POV_:**

I'm going back in my mind to that day. That day when I stood with my hands hidden behind my back and tears flowing freely down my cheeks at the airport in New Orleans. I didn't want to talk to anybody and especially not my parents. And as long as I had my hands hidden I couldn't speak to them because of their handicap. My parents were deaf.

A few weeks earlier they had decided to send me away to relatives for the summer. The reason was that they both had accepted an offer to work in Kenya during the summer. They were both doctors and figured they could do a lot of good there during three months. They could help a lot of sick people, they had explained to me. It was not a place they wanted to bring me to though so it was decided I'd spend the summer in New York with my aunt and cousins. However, a week before I was set to leave my aunt called and told me it wouldn't be possible for her to take me in for the summer. Her husband had suddenly become very ill and was in the hospital. He was going to be fine but he would need the summer to recuperate and my aunt would have to take care of him. She felt it would be too much with an extra child to look after in addition to her own three kids and her ill husband. When I told my parents what she had said on the phone they were devastated. It was too late to turn back on their promise now and they had already bought the tickets for Kenya. That was when my dad got a tip from a friend of his who had a friend of his own in Washington D.C. The man was some sort of cop as I understood it and he and his fiancee took in kids for the summer. Kids who for different reasons needed to be away from home. When they contacted the man through my dad's friend they found out that all three places had already been filled but my parents were desperate and had begged the couple to please take their little girl too...and they accepted. I cried. I couldn't believe it. I was going to have to spend my summer with complete strangers all because my parents refused to bring me with them. It wasn't fair. And so it happened I was put on a plane with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, on my way to meet my future temporary family. My name is Abigail Lily Sciuto, and this is a story of how I learned the importance of friendship, love and trust.

**_Timothy McGee's POV_:**

"No really, I'm serious, man. You gotta learn to curse or a real federal Agent is never going to like you. They use bad language all the time...I'm serious...I've seen it on TV. Really. I'm sure!"

I looked in awe at the boy sitting next to me on the train. I wondered if he could be right. Where else did the people who wrote movies get their ideas from if not from reality? There had to be some sort of logic there. And I liked logic.

I was on my way to spend my summer in a house with three other kids under the what I believed would be strict supervision of two adults that were both Special Agents with a federal agency in Washington D.C. And my God was I a nervous wreck about meeting the male Agent. My grandfather was a Colonel and this Agent Gibbs was a friend of his when they both served in the Marine corps. Though I had never met him I had heard a lot about him over the years while living with my grandfather during the summers. The stories scared me a little and I was ashamed to admit that I was a bit frightened of the image my mind had determinedly created of this man.

My name is Timothy McGee and that was the summer of 1996; when my grandfather suddenly passed away at the beginning of June and my parents had no choice but to send me to live with the one person they had ever heard of that had taken in a kid for the summer on such short notice.

I looked at the boy beside me with a frown and a worried expression on my face.

"So...can you...uh...perhaps... teach me some swear words...?"

**===============%%%To be continued%%%=====================**


	2. Chapter 2

_Title: In the summer time_

_Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story._

_A/N: This chapter is mostly Ziva's POV. I will be switching between which one of the kids will be doing the telling from their perspective. This time it fell on Ziva though._

* * *

_**CHAPTER 2**_

_**First meeting**_

Gibbs and Jenny were at the airport awaiting the first two arrivals. Gibbs was leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets completely relaxed while his fiance was rummaging through her handbag, searching for her wallet.

Gibbs glanced at her, a small smile playing at his lips. "Jen?"

"Yes." she answered a little too fast.

"Are you nervous about meeting our summer kids?"

"No. Why would you ask that?"

"You've been searching through your bag for seven minutes and thirty seconds now without finding what you're looking for."

"So?" she said in an annoyed tone of voice and fixed him with a stare.

"Your bag isn't that big." he said and grinned slightly.

She drew in a breath and sighed. "I know, Jethro. I just can't seem to focus today."

He gave her a look she was familiar with and answered "I think you know why, Jen."

"I know. I guess I just really need a cigarette."

"I told you you shouldn't have picked up that habit in the first place. Then you wouldn't be having this problem now."

"I really don't need a lecture right now, Jethro. You know my cover in Paris required that I smoked. "

Gibbs let out a small laugh. "Oh yeah, once." he said holding up a finger close to her face.

Not really needing to say more on the subject Jenny left to go to the gift shop to buy some chocolate instead. She figured it might help her cravings some. Gibbs remained in his place against the wall, looking up at the board stating the arrivals of the airplanes. The girl Ziva, whose mother was an old friend of Jenny's, and the boy Anthony would be arriving around the same time. With only fifteen minutes between them. They had both been informed to head for the cafe which Gibbs was standing next to as soon as they got off their planes, so he figured they would soon make an appearance. He was well aware none of the kids they had agreed to take in knew each other and he wondered how they would take to each other.

**===================%%%Ziva's POV%%%=============================**

**This was how I first met Anthony Santo DiNozzo Jr.**

I spotted it. My suitcase. There it was in its green luster coming towards me on the baggage carousel. Finally, I might add. I had been waiting for ever it seemed to set my eyes on it. It was probably more like ten minutes but who was counting anyway. My feet were finally off that airplane which had almost bored me to death the last hour. I had had to sit and listen to the old couple in front of me argue about the hotel they had chosen in Washington. The old lady wanted something more expensive and luxurious than the choice they had made and the old man wanted something cheaper so they could do more sightseeing instead. The last fifteen minutes I had held my fingers in my ears to try to keep from hearing their constant loud bickering. They reminded me of being forced to listen to my parents when they were in the same room.

But now I was off the plane and at the airport. The last thing my mother had told me before she had taken me to the airport in Tel Aviv, was that my first priority as soon as I got off the plane was to be to find the cafe called Rest where her friend, Special Agent Jenny Shepard, and her boyfriend Jethro Gibbs would be waiting for me. My intent was to do just that, but something caught my attention. Actually everything caught my attention. I just needed to explore a little first. Have a look around. It was the first time I was on my own and before I went to see the next two adults in my life who I figured would start dishing out orders I wanted to take a look around.

I grabbed my green suitcase and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I then started walking determinedly towards the exit, following the stream of adults trying to get to their next flight or perhaps to meet whoever was waiting to take them home. I walked through something that resembled a tunnel and at the end of it emerged into a really big area with different gates to different airplanes. There were people everywhere and lots of desks and self check ins. I quickly noticed the looks people were giving me. Some were staring at me, as if I were lost or something. Then again maybe it wasn't common for a ten year old girl to be walking around the airports alone in the U.S. A sudden feeling struck me though. A feeling that I was being watched. I looked around but could not see anyone in particular so I just shrugged it off for the time being. I quickly scanned the place for somewhere interesting to head to. I noticed a really big escalator and went for it, leaving my green suitcase for the moment because it was too big to drag behind me. The escalator lead me up to the highest point from where I could see everything. It was amazing! I stood there for a minute taking in how truly big the airport was. Then I decided it was time to pay the gift shop a visit. I jumped up on the escalator railing and allowed it to bring me safely to the ground. When my feet touched the ground I felt someone grab the back of my coat. I slowly turned my head and saw a large man standing there shaking his head at me with a scowl. For a moment I panicked. What did he want with me?

"Young lady, what you just did was veeery dangerous." he scolded while wagging his finger in my face. "Where are your parents?"

I kept quiet. Hoping he would let me go.

"Are you traveling without your parents?" he asked in a suspicious tone. Since he asked and the simple answer to his question was yes I simply nodded, thinking he would let me go then. Instead an almost devilish grin appeared on his face and he started pulling me behind the escalator. That's when I took my eyes off his face and let them wander to the rest of him. He did not exactly look like a traveling business man. He was dirty and had a duffel bag in his other hand. He was wearing a dark winter coat, even though it was summer, and army boots with untied laces. I came to the sudden realization that he had been watching me since I got out of the tunnel and that he now intended to rob me. In just a few short seconds we were behind the escalator. It was like a small dark room back there. He had his big hand covering my mouth, preventing me from screaming for help. It was dark but I could still see his ugly face and he was hideous alright. "Hand over your money." he hissed and took hold of my backpack while it was still on me, trying to pull it open while keeping a firm hold of my arm.

I was scared but did my best to fight him off and break his hold on me. I felt I was getting closer to freeing myself when suddenly I saw a figure appear behind him in the dark. It was a person! A person who was only slightly taller than myself. As he got closer I realized that it was a boy. I could tell by the way he moved. He had a sweatshirt on with a name on it. At first I could not tell what it said. But as my eyes got used to the dim light I could read the letters: T- O- N- Y. He was lurking closer to us, as quietly as possible evidently. Although that wasn't very quiet to my taste. This kid had obviously no experience in how to move without making noise and had the man not had his hand covering my mouth I would have sighed at the attempt. The man seemed too busy trying to get my back pack open to notice the boy who was now standing right behind him. I got the impression he had not thought much farther than to get close to the man because he now seemed to be looking around for something to use to knock him out with. Unfortunately there was nothing nearby. Which was not that surprising considering we were behind an escalator. People did not exactly go there to admire the decorum.

A muffled "Let go of me." came from my mouth. I tried to make as much noise as possible to keep him distracted and divert the attention from the boy so he would not notice him. Suddenly the boy dropped to his knees right behind the man and started fiddling with something on the floor. It was too dark for me to see what it was but all the dirty man had to do was take a single step back and he would bump into the boy. I felt sweat trickle down my forehead as I struggled to free myself.

"Hold still, you little brat." he huffed. "Or I'll do something _you_ will regret."

He pulled out the purse with the money my mom had given me and his face broke into a smile and he licked his dry lips with content. At last he let go of me and pushed me to the ground. As he shoved the purse into his pocket I took the opportunity to kick his leg as hard as I could. Maybe that was stupid but I just could not help myself. I was angry with him now and that anger took over for a second before it was again accompanied by fear. The sound that came from him was something of a snarl and he raised his hand, looking ready to strike me. He started to advance on me but got no further than one step before he started toppling forward. With a look of surprise he lost his balance and fell, hitting the floor hard.

I looked over at the boy who laughed and smiled at his own victory. He had managed to tie the man's shoelaces together, causing the fall. He signaled for me to get over to him. I quickly snapped out of my astonishment and took a jump over the dirty man who did not yet seem to have grasped what had happened to him. His hands were still free though and he had not hit his head so it was only a matter of time before he came to his senses and freed himself. If we were still nearby at that time I was sure we would be in even worse trouble.

When I reached the boy we both ran out from behind the escalator and kept running as fast as we could, searching for somewhere to hide. It was confusing and big and lots of people. We could not see where we were going. I turned my head and looked back. And I saw what I had been hoping not to see. There he was! The dirty man! Only...without his shoes. He came running towards us in nothing but socks and he looked pissed. I suppose the fact that he came chasing after us could have had something to do with the fact that I had managed to snatch back my purse which had been sticking out of his pocket before we ran. But I was pretty convinced he was also after us for revenge.

I tapped the boy's shoulder and pointed at the dirty man. His eyes grew big and he looked around for an escape rout. His face lit up when he spotted a boarding gate with only one flight attendance present. He was preparing to let people board the plane and was focused on the screen in front of him. Suddenly I felt the boy grab my arm and start dragging me towards the gate. I had a bad feeling about this but having no better plan myself I just let go and followed, running close behind him. We ran as fast as we could straight past the flight attendance, almost knocking him to the ground in the process. I could hear him yell for us to stop and my new companion yelled back; "Sorry! You should look where you're standing!" as if we had acted completely normal by entering a forbidden area. We kept running until we reached a stairwell that led to the exit where the passengers would leave the building and walk the remaining distance out to the plane. We halted and took a few seconds to catch our breaths.

"Boy, I don't think I've run that fast since I tried to outrun a train last summer."

I looked at him, puzzled. "I am not a boy. And why would you want to outrun a train instead of riding inside it?" I asked.

He frowned, "What?" he never had time to explain what he had just said before both our heads shot up at hearing the same thing. It was the sound of someone running close behind us. "Oh boy, here he comes again!"

"Does he ever give up?" I asked and sighed.

We both looked out at the airfield and all the airplanes out there. Some were moving, others standing still. I knew we were not allowed out there. No one was. The boy looked positively elated though and somehow that seemed to rub off on me and set off my adventurous spirit. I took a step outside and felt the wind in my dark brown hair. "Okay, so where are going anyway?"

"Anywhere is better than that way." he said, pointing at the way we had come from and the direction of the sound of the foot steps.

I looked at him, "Agreed." and we took off running again. This time we headed out into the runway. But we looked over our shoulder first to make sure there was no plane coming in for landing. We ran as fast as we could but had time to glance up at the pilot's face when we rushed past an airplane getting ready for takeoff. He looked quite surprised and perhaps also a little shocked for some reason and he pointed after us and yelled something that we could not hear through the glass window he was seated behind.

After having kept going for a while I looked back and was met by an unusual and quite humorous sight. It was the dirty man pursuing us fast. He was pretty fast for someone with no shoes on. Behind him three flight attendances were running trying desperately to catch up at the same time as they were waving their arms up and down and yelling for us to stop.

The boy took hold of my hand and we ran even faster. It was kind of fun. Although I was starting to wonder how I would explain why I was so late to Agents Gibbs and Shepard later.

I was a pretty good runner, but this boy was fast. I could feel him tugging at my hand to try and get me to keep up with him, but I was getting more and more winded. A strange loud noise could be heard coming from somewhere but did not have the time to try to see what was causing it at that point. "We have to try to loose them somewhere!" I yelled, panting. That was when the noise all of a sudden became almost unbearably loud. We both turned our heads and looked up into the sky. And there, not very far away, was an airplane coming in for landing on the same runway we were on. Maybe that was what the flight attendances had been trying to tell us.

"I think we just lost them!" he yelled to me, trying to shout over the noise of the approaching airplane. The good news was that there were no longer anyone chasing after us.

**=================%%%Same time by the gift shop%%%=========================**

Gibbs glanced at the watch on his left wrist. Where were those kids? They still had to pick up Tim at the train station and he didn't want the kid to get the feeling he was abandoned while waiting for them by himself. That could be a scary experience for a nine year old. He sighed and moved over to where Jenny was standing by a window, staring out at the runways where the airplanes kept coming in. They had searched the entire place, looking everywhere for Anthony and Ziva but no, they were nowhere to be seen. They had even asked security if they had seen two kids wandering around but the answer had been no.

"Their plane came in forty five minutes ago, Jethro. They should be here."

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they should."

"What if something's happened to them."

Leroy Jethro Gibbs leaned his forehead against the big glass window and sighed. He was about to say something to calm his fiance's mind when he spotted something. It was not very often he forgot to close his mouth in surprise but this was one of those few times that he couldn't hide his astonishment. He quickly recovered though and stood up straight and stared out the immense glass window. His gaze was locked on the brown haired boy and even darker brown haired girl wearing a yellow sundress, that he saw running in the distance, followed by a rugged man and group of flight personnel.

He finally found his voice again. "Oh don't worry, Jen. What could possibly have happened." he said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Jenny, detecting the sarcasm frowned and spun around to explain the seriousness of the situation to him. As she stood facing the window she let out a small squeal at the sight before her eyes and then added, "Oh crap."

**======%%%%To be continued%%%=======**

A/N: So that was the second chapter. Please review and let me know what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**The wave-off**

Gibbs burst through the door to the control tower. All the people in the room looked up startled, wondering why the very determined looking man had been able to march right in without anybody stopping him. A clumsy looking security guard with a large figure, appeared right after Gibbs. He appeared quite winded. Jenny followed not far behind him.

Gibbs stopped in the center of the room and intensively eyed the men working at their stations. The guard rushed and stood beside him, looking both flushed and upset.

"Sir, you can't just..." he seemed to be searching for a proper word. "enter here without permission. Now I must ask you to come with me." Gibbs turned and gave him an icy stare that actually made him visibly gulp. "Please..." he added a bit nervously.

Jenny came over to them and put a hand on Gibbs' arm. "Jethro..." she started.

Gibbs reached into his pocket and grabbed his badge, flashing it to the people in the room he continued without hesitation. "Federal Agent, who's in charge here?" he didn't yell but it wasn't a peaceful tone either. "Hey! I asked who is in charge in here."

"O...of what...sir?" the guard stammered.

Gibbs gestured angrily toward the runway outside. He raised his voice some. "Of the plane that's coming in for landing right outside the window!"

One tall, curly haired man wearing glasses, stood up and took a step forward. "I am in charge." he peered at Gibbs suspiciously. "May I ask why you want to know?"

Gibbs and Jenny both approached him with the security guard following closely behind, afraid he might get fired if he were to leave the room without at least appearing to make an attempt to hinder the two of them.

"You have to issue a wave-off!" Gibbs ordered.

The man raised his eyebrows and looked about as skeptical as a person could look after having been issued an order that sounded more like something a person in the military would receive. And he still had no idea what had the man so worked up. He cleared his throat before he spoke. "I'm sorry, Sir. But that is impossible. This is an airport. NOT an aircraft carrier. We don't do...wave-offs... at the last minute here."

Gibbs eyes narrowed some and Jenny decided it was her turn to try to get through to this thick headed man. "Sir, my name is Jenny Shepard. I'm sorry for the intrusion but there simply is no time to argue about this. Out there" she pointed to the window and the runway outside, "are two children about to attempt to outrun one of your airplanes. Now you have to stop that plane!"

The man in charge was still looking at them, air brows raised in an almost ridiculing stare. "I don't know what kind of prank you two are trying to pull here, but whatever it is it's not working. Now get out and let us do our jobs."

Jenny glanced at her partner and could tell he was getting dangerously impatient with the man's attitude toward them. He took a menacing step closer, like a tiger approaching its prey, and fixed him with a dangerous stare. "You listen to me," he cast a quick look at the name tag on the man's chest, "Mr Casca. We are Federal Agents." he again showed him his badge. " Are you really stupid enough to think we would rush in here only to make a joke? If anything happens to those children I will hold you personally responsible after receiving the Intel that they are down there. Do you understand me?" he bellowed, having run out of patience now.

At first the curly haired man recoiled a bit but a second later he straightened and stared back at Gibbs. "I don't believe..." he got no further before a young man in his early twenties, seated in front of a computer, turned in his chair and yelled, "Sir! I see a boy and a girl down there! What should I do?"

Panic rose in the room and everyone started talking at the same time. The curly haired man ran straight over to where he was sitting and stared out the window. He could not believe his eyes. There were in fact two kids running right where the plane was about to land in approximately one minute. "Contact the pilot immediately! Tell him to head for runway number two instead! State emergency as the cause."

Knowing they couldn't accomplish much more up there Gibbs got Jenny's attention and gave a nod towards the door. "I think it's time we straighten things out with the people chasing our kids." he murmured as they descended the stairs and headed down to the gates.

The security guard who had tried to stop them looked up and noticed the Agents gone. He quickly ran after them and caught up as they were headed towards the gate area. "Hey you two! I'm sorry for trying to prevent you from accessing..."

"It's alright you were just doing your job." Jenny interrupted as they continued to move.

"Well, I didn't know there were two little kids down there. I hope they're alright." he said trying to keep up with them as he almost tripped over his own feet.

Gibbs stopped for a second as he got an idea that might save them some time. "Take us to where they are most likely to emerge from the runway." he said and took hold of the man's arm, pulling him along with them.

"Uh...uh...sure. I can do that." he said, seeing any possibility of promotion head out the window as he moved alongside the Agents.

**=================%%%To be continued%%%==============================**

Please review! Coming up next is Gibbs and Jenny meeting Ziva and Tony.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Once upon a summer time

Disclaimer. I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story

* * *

**CHAPTER 4**

**Tony DiNozzo's POV:**

The noise from the engines faded more and more and when I looked back I noticed the plane had now turned away from us and was coming in on the runway next to ours. That was one of the biggest sense of relief I had ever felt. I looked at the girl, she seemed tired. I was tired too. I took hold of her arm and we made an abrupt stop. We just stood for a moment, catching our breath and clasping our knees.

"I guess we managed to lose the airplane too." I joked while panting. However I was surprised it had suddenly changed direction like that. Airplanes weren't usually in the habit of doing so, I knew.

Suddenly she spoke up. "We need to get out of here. Before another airplane comes in and this time squishes us." She looked around anxiously. "And we have to make sure we do not run into that man again."

I agreed. We spotted an entrance and made an attempt at running towards it. After only a few steps we both noticed we were too tired to run, so we slowed down and started walking instead.

I took a moment to look at her. She was not an American, that much was obvious. She had long, dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, the color of dark chocolate. She was not as tall as me, but about to my eyebrows. She could be my age but I wasn't sure, perhaps a year or two younger. She wore a yellow sundress and brown sandals and was kind of petite. I wondered why she had been wandering around the airport by herself. Where were her parents? It wasn't normal for a kid her age to be on her own like that. Then I remembered that I myself had been wandering around just the same way. But that was different. I was a guy.

We pushed the door open to one of the entrances passengers used after getting off their airplane and entered. When we were at last safe inside I decided it was about time so I extended my hand to her. She looked down at it with a surprised look. Almost as if she didn't know how to respond. Then the thought came to me. What if she was from a country very far away where they didn't shake hands. Then maybe she didn't understand what I was trying to do.

"I'm saying hello." I explained.

Her mouth formed a small o, and she took my hand. "I am sorry. I forgot we had not already introduced ourselves, Tony. My name is Ziva Elisenda David." She said and shook my hand. She had quite the grip I noticed. My hand almost went numb.

"You know my name?" I asked, unable to hide my surprise. Who was this girl?

"Yes."

"How?" I asked, excited. Was she some sort of secret agent? It was impossible for her to know my name before I had told her. We had never even met before, and that I was one hundred percent sure of, even though I sucked at calculating percent, and I never forgot a face.

She frowned, "It's on your sweatshirt."

Shoot, I thought. I looked down at my chest and grinned awkwardly. "Good point." I said blushing slightly, "I was just testing your ability to observe under pressure."

"Sure you were." She said, obviously not buying what I said. "We should go up so you can find your parents and I can find…"

A big hand on her shoulder made her stop talking and her eyes grow big. I hadn't seen him coming because he had emerged from behind the stairs where he had stood hidden, just waiting for the right moment to jump out at us. It was the dirty man. He looked even angrier now than before.

Before I had time to react he had grabbed my collar and pulled us close together in front of him. Now, in better light and being much closer to him than before, I noticed his intense yellow eyes. He looked almost like a beast from some story. A werewolf perhaps. His teeth even looked extra sharp and for a moment I thought he might want to have us for lunch.

I awoke from my reverie by Ziva's loud scream.

"I got you now, little rats." He hissed between clenched teeth.

I wanted to scream too but my throat refused to obey me and make any sounds what so ever. Just when I was about to actually start praying, I heard four blessed words.

"Federal Agents! Hold it!"

I looked up at the head of the stairs and saw a silver haired man and a red haired woman. I had an idea who they were. But figuring there would be time for hellos later I focused on the problem at hand and used my right leg to kick the dirty man in the shin, hard. Ziva was evidently eager to be set free as well as she spun around and gripped his hand, sinking her teeth deep into his skin.

The dirty man howled and pulled his hand back. He had teeth marks set deep in his skin. Recovering quickly he released me and pulled his right hand back to strike Ziva, who quickly ducked and jumped out of the way, pulling me with her. We landed on the floor. He didn't give up so easily though. He followed ready to pound his fist to Ziva's back but was stopped by the silver haired man who had now descended the stairs and was at our side. He blocked the dirty man's hand and then quickly got around him in one quick move, securing both his arms around his back. The red haired woman handed him a pair of hand cuffs and then got to her knees next to us.

"Are you alright?" she asked, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. I nodded and sat up, cross-legged on the floor. Ziva did the same. The red haired woman put her hand under Ziva's chin and lifted it to take a look at her face. There were no tears, just a perplexed look accompanied by relief.

"You alright too?" she asked Ziva who nodded. The red haired woman got to her feet and offered one hand to Ziva and her other hand to me and helped us get up from the floor. We stood side by side and watched as a security guard came running down the stairs. The dirty man was handed to him on a silver platter from the silver haired man who had captured him. The security guard looked very grateful and also a little proud as he took the dirty man away. The dirty man glared at us as they passed but the woman put a protective hand on each of our shoulders and made us take a step back.

When they were half way up the stairs the silver haired man called to the security guard. "Good job capturing him, George. Let your boss know it wasn't an easy job for one man but you had no problems solving the situation." He winked and then joined the red haired woman's side. He wiped some sweat from his forehead and then focused his eyes on the two of us. He looked at us for a moment and I felt nervous. By then I was sure I knew who they were and I was sure how this might look to them. They probably saw it as I had gotten myself into trouble intentionally. And not just myself, but that I had also dragged this girl into it.

I glanced at my shoes, a bit uncomfortable being scrutinized by the man's piercing blue eyes. He certainly knew the art of staring a man to death. Then a hand appeared in my visual. I looked up and saw that he had extended his hand to me and was now looking…kind. I grinned and shook his hand.

"Special Agent Gibbs."

"Anthony Santo DiNozzo."

"Nice to meet you, Anthony."

"Tony." I corrected him at once. My father had taught me to always introduce myself with my full name, even though I preferred my nick name.

He smiled at me, kindly with warm eyes. "Tony." He agreed. He pointed at the red haired woman. "This here is Special Agent Jenny Shepard."

He turned to Ziva, standing by my side. "And you must be Ziva." He said.

I turned to Ziva, stunned. Okay so Ziva was no secret Agent with secret info of people at an airport but this guy certainly was. He already knew her name. That was amazingly impressive.

Ziva looked at the Agents and everything was quiet. She then gave a nod to each of them and stated. "You are Special Agents Gibbs and Shepard."

Gibbs and Jenny confirmed by nodding and Jenny took a step forward. "Yes, we are, honey." She shook Ziva's hand gently but firmly. "I haven't seen you since you were just a baby."

I spun around and faced Ziva, "You know these two?" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you say something?"

She raised a brow at me. "Because I did not realize until just now who they were."

Gibbs put his hand on the back of my head and grinned at how lost I was. "Tony, this is Ziva. We've been waiting for you both." He explained.

Of course! I was such an idiot. "_You're_ one of the kids who are going to be living with the Federal Agents? _We're _gonna be living together?" I could not believe it. I had had no idea who this girl was half an hour ago when I had seen her get pulled behind the escalator by the dirty man. And now all of a sudden we were going to spend the summer together?

She just shrugged. "I guess."

I shook my head in disbelief. This was going to be one tough summer, keeping track of this girl. She certainly had a way of finding trouble. But then again… so did I. Although I never really knew how it happened.

**To be continued**

A/N: I'd like to say thanks for the reviews I've received and the tags as favorite story etc. I would also like to make a request though for some more people to let me know what you think of the story so I can continue it more easily. It's always so much easier with feedback. Is it too slow? Moving too fast? Are the characters right? Please let me know your thoughts.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: Once upon a summer time**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

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**CHAPTER 5**

**By myself**

**Fast food restaurant at airport**

Gibbs and Jenny eyed each other incredulously from where they sat on opposite sides of the table they shared with the two children. Tony and Ziva were openly bickering over whether or not Tony had saved Ziva from the man who had been chasing them. Ziva kept telling him that she had not needed any saving. She insisted she had had the situation totally under control until he came along.

The discussion had started while the kids were explaining how they had ended up on the runway with a team of airport personnel and a rugged man chasing after them. Tony had offered a smug comment about how he had saved Ziva and the comment had not been made the smoothest way possible. Ziva had almost hit the roof, not wanting to admit to needing any help. Gibbs could see despite the short amount of time they had spent together that this girl was used to fending for herself. At her young age she was quite independent.

Finally Jenny had to tell the two of them to give it a rest and eat their lunch before it got cold. They still had to drive to the train station to pick up Tim and then drive back to the airport just in time for Abby's flight to arrive.

Jenny estimated they should have left five minutes ago but the kids needed some food in their stomachs after the excitement they had had the last hour so she had convinced Gibbs to make a quick stop at the fast food restaurant at the airport before heading over to the train station.

Out in the parking lot they loaded everything into the trunk of the car and then jumped in. Gibbs drove and Ziva and Tony had placed themselves on opposite sides of the car in the backseat. Both were quiet, watching the view from the window. Jenny eyed them in the rear- view mirror and grinned. She hoped their disagreement was just temporary and that they would get along. Right now she was mostly focused on picking up Timothy and then Abby. She was worried he might have been waiting for them for some time now by himself. Maybe he was scared or maybe he had wondered off to look for them. She nudged Gibbs elbow slightly and with a worried frown she asked him if he could please drive a little faster. She quickly regretted asking as he picked up the pace considerably and she instead started worrying he would scare the two kids in the backseat witless. Glancing back though she caught them exchanging little smiles of excitement at the speed they were travelling in.

Tony leaned forward, "Hey, Agent Gibbs. Does your car go any faster?"

Gibbs cleared his throat, a bit embarrassed at being accused of owning the car he was currently driving. It was a rental Jenny had insisted they'd need for the summer. She had explained to him that with four kids it wouldn't be enough with a car with only five seats. So they had rented a Volvo with eight seats including the driver's seat. "Do I look like the type who would own a car like this?"

"Jethro." Jenny scolded.

Tony regarded that question for a second before he replied, "No, not really. "

Gibbs smiled, "Exactly." He caught Tony's confused look in the mirror and grinned, "It's a rental for the summer."

"Oh."

**======================%%%Tim's POV:%%%====================================**

**At the train station**

**"This was how I first met Special Agents Gibbs and Shepard and Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo."**

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. This was my nightmare. I was by myself. All alone. No one in sight. And I had no idea what to do. Stay put. Yes, that's right. That was the right thing to do in a situation like the one I was in at the moment. I stood at the sidewalk, keeping my suitcase on wheels right next to me so some bad guy wouldn't come and take it from me. I had everything I needed in there. Money, deck of cards, my own sheets from home, some emergency candy bars…everything. I simply couldn't lose it.

Ilooked around. People who had been on the same train as me were starting to scatter. They were on their way to their cars. The trip had been fine and everything had been going according to plan up until I got off the train and found myself alone. I knew I probably hadn't been standing there long but to me it felt like hours.

I peered down at my pale legs that yet hadn't been tanned by the sun and my green shorts that almost reached down to my knees. I wore a t-shirt with Mickey mouse on it that I loved and my new tennis shoes.

I clutched the handle on my suitcase until my knuckles went white and tried to breathe deeply to keep myself from panicking. Before I had been terrified of even meeting Special Agent Gibbs but now I just wished him and Special Agent Shepard would get here.

To my huge sense of relief I saw a car approach. It stopped right in front of me, next to the sidewalk and out stepped a silver haired man and a red haired woman. I had seen pictures of Special Agent Gibbs so I recognized him immediately; he just looked a little older than on the pictures. I had never seen the woman before though but my guess was that was Special Agent Shepard.

As they steered their steps toward me I felt my palms begin to sweat again. They had very determined steps, like the cops on TV. Maybe the kid on the train had been right. Maybe they were really tough and expected me to be as tough as them right away. I gulped and left my mouth open wide. They stopped in front me and I forced myself to look up at them. Behind them stood a boy and a girl, who looked like they were a few years older than me. The boy wore baggy jeans and a big sweater with the letters T-O-N-Y on it. The girl wore a yellow sundress that went down to her knees. They both stared at me in a way that made me feel a little uncomfortable.

The red haired woman smiled at me, "Hello. You must be Timothy McGee." I nodded and she stretched out her hand to shake mine. "My name is Jenny." She gestured toward the silver haired man, "And this is Jethro."

"Hi." I managed and then diverted my eyes to the ground with an occasional glance at them.

I shook hands with the man too and he then insisted on helping me with my suitcase. While he put it in the back of the car, Jenny introduced me to the boy and girl. "This is Tony and this here is Ziva." They both gave little hellos to me and I did the same. Kids older than me sometimes scared me a little. And Tony was definitely old.

We all got back into the car. I sat in the middle, between Tony and Ziva. I noticed there were only three of us here. I remembered my mom telling me there would be four of us kids living with the Special Agents during the summer. I summoned my courage and asked the girl in a quiet voice, "Isn't there supposed to be someone else here? A girl?"

Before she had time to answer Tony answered me instead in a loud voice, letting the adults know I had asked a question. "We're on our way to pick her up now." He examined me closely with his eyes. "She's supposed to be very little…so she should be the same age as you." He replied casually.

I frowned. If I had had the guts I would have objected. I wasn't little…well, at least not _that_ little. I knew because I had been told that the youngest girl would be the youngest of us four, and therefore must be younger than me. And that made me…not so little.

Gibbs started the engine and soon we were out on the road. "Actually, Abigail is six years old." Gibbs grinned at me in the mirror and I managed a small smile in return. It was nice of him to say that to Tony so he would know I wasn't the youngest of us four. It was as if he had felt I wanted to object but didn't dare to so he did it for me. "You're seven years old, right Timothy?" he asked and I nodded, but frowned a little at the use of my full name. People usually didn't call me that unless I had somehow misbehaved, but that rarely happened. So I was quite unaccustomed to being called Timothy. "Do you want to be called Timothy or do you have something else you prefer?" I flinched. What was he, a mind reader?

"I…I…prefer to be called Tim, or Timmy."

I wondered how old Tony and Ziva were. I didn't dare to ask Tony but I figured if I asked Ziva, who didn't seem quite as old and scary as Tony did, he might answer too. I turned my head and looked at her. "How old are you, Ziva?"

Ziva hooked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. "I'm eight." She answered matter- of- factly and then proceeded to braid her own hair by herself. I didn't understand how she did that without even a mirror. But she didn't even use the window to see her reflection; she just stared ahead while she moved her fingers back and forth, quickly creating the long braid.

Tony didn't say anything. That was until Gibbs once again asked him for me. "How old are you, Tony?"

Tony looked up and sighed. "I'm eleven."

I couldn't see Gibbs mouth in the mirror but I could tell he was smiling because the smile reached his eyes. He didn't seem to be as bad as I had imagined. In fact I could no longer remember why I had been so petrified of the mere thought of the man before. "Are you sure about that?" he asked Tony who looked stunned.

Tony studied his fingernails for a while and then changed his mind."No, sir. I guess I made that up…kind of. I'm really nine and a half."

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**To be continued**

**A/N: I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post chapter five but during the last couple of weeks I've moved and then moved again because I didn't like the new city so things have been a little rough. But now I'm back to writing again. Please review and let me know what you think. Even just a small or quick comment means a lot.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: Once upon a summer time**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: Some reviews sure would be nice ;)**

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**CHAPTER 6**

**Philip in danger**

**Abby's POV: **

**Outside gate 45 at the airport:**

I stood there and just stared at them, wearing my red cotton dress and my hair in pigtails. I had tears in my eyes and I could almost feel my bottom lip quiver with anxiety at seeing all those new faces. Faces of people I had never met before. One, two, three, four, five people.

I had just gotten off the airplane and was standing outside the gate with my luggage. I was hugging Philip; my favorite stuffed yellow duck with his big, floppy orange feet close to me. I was never planning on letting him go. I felt a little safer hugging him. The man and the woman, Agent Gibbs and Agent Shepard had just introduced themselves and the other three kids to me. But I hadn't said anything. I was scared and felt shy and I just wanted real bad to hide behind something. The woman smiled down at me and I buried my face in the soft, yellow fur of my duck, Philip. She reached out her hand and wanted to take me by the hand to the car. I refused though. I didn't know her. I didn't know anyone here. She kept trying for a while but when I shook my head she finally took the hint.

We started walking. Agent Gibbs was carrying my suitcase and my back pack. Agent Shepard, Jenny, walked next to him and they spoke in hushed voices. The girl, Ziva and the younger boy, Tim, walked behind them and I came along, face still buried in my duck. I glanced back once and saw the oldest boy, Tony, walking quite far away from us, looking about as he strolled with his hands in his pockets. He seemed brave to do that. I would be afraid I would lose the others and get left behind at the airport. I was afraid of these people that I didn't know, but I was more afraid of getting left behind than of them, so I followed.

Being deep in thought made me walk a little slower and before I knew it the others had gotten somewhat ahead of me. I looked up and was just about to run to catch up with them when someone bumped into me, hard. It made me lose my footing and fall straight on my butt on the floor. To my horror I lost Philip who landed on the floor and quickly got kicked by someone passing by. I didn't have time to get up before a second shoe made contact with Philip and he got kicked even farther away from me. I started to panic and tears rolled down my face. I had tried so hard to keep them from falling before but now I could no longer keep them away. I looked around for Agent Gibbs or Jenny but neither was in sight. All around me I saw people passing me. The place was so crowded legs moved all around my body as I sat on the floor.

I pulled my legs up to my chest and hugged my knees and then buried my face in my hands as I cried. I wanted so badly to go home. Then I felt someone pull one of my pigtails gently and I slowly looked up. There next to me stood Tony, looking down at me from above. He crouched down and cocked his head to the side.

"Are you alright?"

I sniffed and shook my head. "I lost Philip." Tears fell again. "He's gone forever after."

He stood up and put both hands under my arms and lifted me from the ground to my feet. He then brushed my dress off and took my hand. Determinedly he pushed his way past people with casual "Excuse me's". We kept going until we spotted Philip lying on the floor. I wanted to run to him before another person kicked my poor duck and I tugged on Tony's hand. "Don't let go of my hand." He instructed me and we both started running towards Philip.

I picked him up and hugged him to me close while I rocked him back and forth, murmuring how happy I was to see him.

Tony bent down a little and looked at me, "Are you alright now?"

I nodded and wiped away a tear. "Thank you for saving him, Tony."

"We have to find Agent Gibbs and the others." He said and looked around. The place was really packed with people everywhere and it was hard to see past the person in front of us. "We came from that direction. Let's head that way."

I wasn't about to object. I had no idea where we were or even what direction we had come from. We took off in the direction Tony had pointed. I held onto his hand tightly. He walked so fast I had trouble keeping up with him. "Tony, please, not so fast."

He turned to me, "We have to hurry up and find the others before… "

"Look out!" I yelled as something large and blue appeared in front of us totally unaware of our presence. It was too late and Tony crashed right into a security guard's side and had to take a step back to regain his balance. He rubbed his forehead and nose but quickly recovered and looked up.

"Uhm…sorry." He mumbled, slightly embarrassed.

The security guard eyed us with a tired expression. He was clumsy looking and quite big. "Are you two kids lost?" he asked.

"Uhm…well, kinda." Tony answered. "We're looking for a man and a woman. They have two other kids with them. One girl and one boy. The girl is my age, kinda…and the boy is small and…"

Suddenly recognition flashed across the man's face and he held up a hand. "Wait a minute…I recognize you." He narrowed his eyes. "You're that kid who was at the runway earlier."

Tony stood up straight. "Yes, Sir."

"I thought you left."

"Uhm…well, no, Sir."

"So what are you still doing here then?"

"I'm looking for Agent Gibbs and Agent Shepard, Sir."

The man sighed deeply and rolled his eyes. "They lost you AGAIN?"

"Well, no they didn't exactly lose us. It was more us who lost them I guess. You see we went on this rescue mission and they disappeared and…"

He was halted again. "Alright, ALRIGHT. At least you're not on the runway this time, kid. I'll help you find them."

We didn't have time to start off before we heard a familiar voice behind us. "That won't be necessary, George."

The man jumped a little and spun around, almost bumping into Special Agent Gibbs who was standing right behind him with a grin. "Jeesus, Special Agent Gibbs. I didn't even see you." He took a breath, "I'm having a feeling of deja vu here." he pointed at Tony. " I take it these two belong to you?" he turned his gaze to me. "How many do you have anyway? This one wasn't with you before." he scratched his head in confusion.

Gibbs stepped over to me and Tony. He put one hand on Tony's shoulder and his other one on mine. "No, she wasn't. But she is now. They seem to have a canny way of slipping away." I glanced up at his face to see if he looked angry, hoping Tony would explain what happened that made us get left behind. But Agent Gibbs didn't look angry at all. He took Tony by the hand and this time I let him take me too and we said good bye to the security guard and headed to the car. Gibbs told us that's where the others were waiting. He also added we had scared him but to my relief he still didn't look mad when he said it. Tony explained to him what had happened and he smiled at me. "Well, I can see you take good care of your friends." He said indicating Philip tucked under my left arm. "It's good. You should never leave anyone behind."

I frowned as I walked next to him. "What do you mean?"

"Marines never leave a friend behind." He explained with a wink at me.

Tony looked up. "You were a Marine, Special Agent Gibbs?"

"Jethro is fine. And yes I was and I still am. There is no such thing as an X- Marine. "

Tony looked impressed but then frowned. "Jethro? Is that even a name? I think I like Gibbs better."

Gibbs laughed at hearing that. "That's fine too."

I sneaked another peak at the man. I was starting to feel a little more comfortable around him. He seemed nice. And Tony sure was too. He saved Philip…and me.

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To be continued

A/N: Please send me a little review with some thoughts. It would make me really happy and it also makes it easier to continue the story.


	7. Chapter 7

Story: Once upon a summertime

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, I'm just borrowing the characters for the story.

CHAPTER 7

Little house at 1242Pineroad

Gibbs pulled the car into the driveway to the little house at 1242 Pine road. Ziva, Tim, Abby and Tony all gazed out the window at the little white house with blue old fashioned shutters before them. The front door was made of strong oak and had a polished brass ring door knocker. The house and the back yard, were surrounded by a white picket fence.

"Home again." He said with a smile.

Abby looked out at the house. It was the most beautiful little house she had seen in her whole life. It looked so cute and homey. From the beginning when she had been told she was going to live with strangers, she had visualized a spooky place. Maybe even a haunted house surrounded by scary lightning bolts. But this was nothing like that. This was adorable.

Tony looked skeptically at the building in front of him. Sure it looked nice, but it certainly wasn't anything like his dad's mansion.

"Don't worry." Gibbs whispered in his ear. " It's not immense, but I guarantee you'll all fit."

Ziva circled around the car to retrieve her bag from the trunk. She stole a glance at the house. She had to admit, it was pretty. She stood next to Tim who was struggling to get his luggage out of the trunk while being a bit too short to reach it. Without feeling the need for words Ziva gave him a little shove to the side and climbed up into the trunk. From there she grabbed his luggage and pushed it to the edge. She then hopped down and lifted it from the trunk into his waiting arms. He gave her a grateful smile. "Thanks."

She shrugged, "Sure.", and grabbed her own back pack and suitcase and put them on the ground.

**Ten minutes later**

Special Agent Jenny Shepard opened the front door and held it open for all four kids to enter. On the other side of the front door was a small hall with a large mirror hanging on the wall and a coat tree next to it. Tony peered at the mirror and the coat tree that were both made of oak tree and looked handmade. Someone around here was obviously good with his or her hands, he figured. Ziva dropped her back pack on top of a dresser, careful not to push the pot of lavender on it.

They all entered further into the house, looking about as they walked.

"So, this is our house…and your home too for the summer." Gibbs spoke as the two Agents guided the kids through the first floor of the small house.

"As you can see it's not big." Jenny filled in. "But it's clean and cozy and it's home."

As they exited the hall they ended up with a staircase in front of them and the entrance to the kitchen to the right. Jenny herded them into the kitchen first and as they entered they could see that the kitchen was connected to the living room with no wall between them. It looked more like one room. The ceiling had wooden rafters providing the place with a pleasant feeling. They all continued into the living room quietly. It was a little bigger than the kitchen. In the center of the room stood a coffee table and two leather armchairs and a couch. Underneath the coffee table was a soft rug which warmed Abby's feet as she stepped on it. There was a fire place and on the mantle place stood some framed photographs. Next to the fire place, a rocking chair had been placed and in front of it laid an even softer white sheepskin rug.

The entire first floor of the house consisted of the connected living room and kitchen, the hall and one small bathroom to the left of the stairs. It all certainly gave a tiny but cozy feeling. Jenny was responsible for most of the decorating in the house and had done a good job. She had chosen light colors in all rooms and the kitchen had been painted white. Most of their furniture was made of dark oak wood.

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs peered at the four children standing in the living room, looking back at him. Jenny stood next to him and she was positively beaming. He had heard nothing the past couple of weeks except how she was looking forward to the kids' arrival to their home.

Gibbs indicated the couch with a curt nod of his head and all four kids took a seat, quietly. Tony to the right, Ziva next to him, Abby in the middle and Tim to the left on the couch.

Gibbs was about to speak when the phone rang. "I'll get that." He put a hand on his fiancés shoulder and left her with the kids.

"Well." She clapped her hands together with a smile, "I can't believe you're finally here." All kids stared at her and she had a hard time telling what they were feeling at the moment. She understood, though, that everything was new to them and perhaps even a little scary or awkward. "I hope you know that Jethro and I are both very happy to have you here and we're looking forward to spending this summer with you." She studied their faces which all remained blank. "It's going to be fine. "she assured them all with a wave of her hand. "You'll see."

The house was very different from Ziva's own house in Israel. She just hoped she would get used to it. "Where are we going to sleep?" she asked, urgent to get some time to herself. She was a loner. She had always been one and right now she was feeling a little crowded.

Jenny pointed to the stairs. "Upstairs. Follow me and I'll show you. Jethro will help you get your luggage up there later."

The four kids got up from the couch and followed Jenny. At the bottom of the stairs Tony stopped and looked over at Gibbs who was standing by the dresser in the hall, talking on the phone. "Who's he talking to?" he asked, unable to still his curiosity.

"Probably someone from work. Don't worry, he'll be done soon."

When they reached the top of the stairs they turned right and continued walking through a very short hall. As they walked Abby looked up at the ceiling. It too had rafters. She thought it looked nice. Kind of like a wood cabin. The walls were white with big flowers painted on them. The flowers were in different bright colors and were evenly placed along the walls. Abby stopped and touched one, running her small index finger along its edges carefully.

"I painted those." Jenny said and made her jerk in surprise unaware anyone was watching her. "Do you like them?" Abby looked at her and nodded. "Thank you." Jenny smiled and then turned to Tony, Ziva and Tim behind her. "So, which room do you want to see first? The boys' room or the girls' room?"

No one answered. Jenny was pretty sure at least the youngest two each had a wish but they were both yet too shy to answer. Finally Ziva spoke. "You can show ours first then." She said and spun around impatiently.

"Alright. It's the one at the end."

Jenny passed one room and stopped outside the one farthest down the short hall. She rested her hand on the door knob and waited for all four of them to catch up before opening the door. "This is your room." She said to Abby and Ziva and then pushed the door open. She entered with the girls in tow. It was a kind of small room, but the room had a big window with window seats and white cotton curtains. The walls were painted white and Ziva was very happy to see that there wasn't even a trace of pink in the room. Two single beds were placed in the center of the room next to each other with a nightstand between them. The nightstand had a lamp on it and a little shelf underneath for books or other necessary bed time things. On the wall facing the beds hung a painting of a black stallion galloping across a grassy meadow with a mountain in the background. And in the corner there was a smallish, old fashioned fireplace with an armchair next to it.

Abby looked around the room with big eyes. She thought it was the nicest room she had ever seen. It was just beautiful. She looked up and saw that their ceiling also had nice wooden rafters, even though it was a rather low one.

Ziva crossed the room to look outside the window. She climbed up on the window seat and longingly gazed outside. The window faced the backyard and she could see passed it out on the street outside the house.

Abby strolled over to Ziva and took a glance outside. She then hopped down from the window seat as her eyes fell on the cedar chest standing by the foot of one of the beds. It looked like a pirate chest to her eyes and maybe it even had a treasure inside. She wanted to ask but was afraid the others would laugh at her if it turned out to be something else. Suddenly Jenny appeared by her side and lifted her to sit on the chest. "So, what do you think?"

Glancing up at the rafters in the ceiling and the fireplace in the corner Abby had to nod her head approvingly. "It's sooo nice, Agent Shepard."

"Jenny." The Agent corrected the little girl with a warm smile. "I'm glad you think so." She turned to girl number two. "Ziva, how about you? Will it do?"

Ziva had to admit the room was great. "It's very nice." She said, not leaving her place in the window. Jenny could tell she was being honest but her voice lacked any enthusiasm what so ever.

"Good. If you want, you girls can go downstairs and get your bags and start unpacking. Or if you'd rather see Tim and Tony's room first you can stick with us. "

Ziva stayed behind. She figured the boys' room wasn't going anywhere and she still needed a little time to herself. She was happy to see Abby go with Jenny, Tim and Tony to inspect their room so she could be alone. She hadn't expected to be sharing a room with anyone. But having seen the size of the house she supposed there was no use in asking if she could have her own room. There didn't seem to be any more spare rooms.

The boys followed Jenny through the door to their new room. It was middle sized and painted a light green with rafters in the ceiling like the girls' room and all other rooms. On the opposite side from the door stood one bed, underneath the window, and against the left wall was a second bed. The bedspreads on both beds were grey and they both had a nightstand next to the bed with a lamp on it. Tony noted that on contrary to what he was used to there was no television in the bedroom. He figured he would have to make do with what they had here. There was however a guitar resting in one corner which made him raise a brow in question.

Jenny walked over to the closet and opened it, showing it to Tony and Tim. "You can put your clothes in here later."

The boys entered while Abby lingered at the door. Tim took a seat on the bed to the left. His feet dangled in the air since he couldn't reach the floor while seated there. As Tony passed the closet his eyes shot wide open. He wriggled his way in next to Jenny so he could get a better look. The closet was not very wide but quite long instead and on the other side he could see a second door. He found that interesting and strange. Why would there be a door at the end of the closet? Usually there was only one and it was the one that you entered through.

"Uhm…Jenny. Where does that lead?" he asked and pointed at the door.

"Hm?" she looked up from a drawer she was going through. "Oh that." She laughed. She had a kind laugh, Tony thought. "That's the other entrance. This closet unites the girls' room with yours. In other words you share the closet."

"Oh." Tony said with a huff. He had been hoping it was something a little more exciting than that.

Tim's eyes were drawn to a picture on the wall. It was a really big object in the sea. It looked kind of strange and he wasn't sure what It was. He turned his head to Jenny who was rummaging around in the closet. "What's that?" he asked. Her head came out of the closet and she gave him a puzzled look. He pointed at the picture. "That."

"Oh." She smiled, "That is an aircraft carrier." She explained.

"They carry aircrafts?"

Jenny nodded. "That's right."

Tim looked fascinated. "Wow." He whispered. "I wish I could get to see one of those one day." He said.

"Maybe you will." Said a voice from behind as Gibbs entered. "So, you guys happy with the room?" he asked.

"Yes, Sir." Tim answered.

"Sure, Gibbs, it's just fine." Tony agreed.

Gibbs looked pleased. "Good. What do you say to some dinner? I took liberty of ordering us pizza."

Jenny scowled at him from across the room. "Jethro. I said I was going to cook. Did that somehow slip your mind?"

Gibbs scratched the back of his head. "I guess it did, Jen." He said with a grin as he tried to appear innocent. "But at least now you get to rest and won't have to cook." He said with a smile, in an attempt to lighten her mood again.

"Oh you…" she crossed the space between them and gave him a quick, soft kiss on the cheek. "So when will the pizza get here?"

He glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Oh…in about…twenty minutes."

"That gives us time to…"

"Scan the territory." Tony interrupted and quickly headed for the door. He had a feeling the words that were about to come out of Jenny's mouth had been something about washing hands and setting the table. He could tell…by the look on her face.

In an instant he was gone. Jenny and Gibbs looked at each other and shrugged. "Oh well, " Gibbs said, "I guess we have time to show them the backyard." He patted Tim's shoulder. "Come one, Tim. "

Tim hopped off the bed and Gibbs took Abby's hand as they strolled downstairs. Out in the hall Jenny called out to Ziva. Not getting any response she told the others to go ahead and instead headed for the girls' room again. Outside the door she knocked and then entered. Ziva was seated on the bed closest to the window with her back pack In front of her. She wasn't doing anything, just staring ahead at the wall.

"Ziva…?" Jenny spoke to get the girl's attention. "What are you doing, honey?"she asked.

Ziva jumped at the sound of her voice. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" she snapped.

Jenny raised a brow in surprise at the girl's reaction. "Whoa, what's going on here, Ziva? Did something upset you?" she coaxed. She walked over to the bed and sat down in the middle of it. Ziva had her back leaned against the headboard and had been in deep thought. Now she just shook her head at Jenny's question. "Nothing huh? Then how about you come with me outside and take a look at the backyard with the others?"

Ziva once again shook her head. She had no desire to see the backyard. She could do that on her own later. Just like she usually did with most things. She liked being on her own, not having anybody else to worry about but herself.

Jenny nodded in understanding. She had been told by Ziva's mother what sort of kid Ziva was and had been expecting something like this sooner or later. "I spoke to your mom before you left Israel you know. She told me you are used to being on your own."

Ziva didn't look up and instead fidgeted with the bedspread.

"She also told me you are a very capable young lady."

That made Ziva look up. Praise was unusual in her family. "She said that?"

"Yes, she did. She also told me you prefer to spend time on your own instead of with other kids. Is that also true?"

Ziva nodded. "I mostly play alone at home." Her face brightened a little. "I used to play a little with a friend of mine. But then he went away. I have not seen him for a long time, and I am not sure where he is." she said sadly.

Jenny closed her eyes and took a breath. "I'm sorry to hear that, Ziva." she scooted a little closer to the girl. "You know I was a lot like you when I was a little girl. I liked to play alone. " She could tell the girl was listening to her even though she had returned to staring at her lap. "One day my father talked to me about that. He said that it was in a way his fault because we moved a lot at that time. But he thought I should give playing with other kids a try." She moved her hand up to stroke Ziva's hair gently. "Not long after that I met two girls a little older than me. They were nice to me and we became friends. But we never would have become friends had I not given them half a chance." She said with a final playful tug on the girl's long braid. "You willing to give us a chance, huh?"

Ziva gave a little smile and then looked up. "Okay, fine."

Jenny put her arm around the girl's shoulders. "That's a good girl. Now come on, let's see what the others are up to outside." She got to her feet and started to leave when Ziva surprised her with a question of her own.

"Jenny." The girl stood up, "How do you and my mother know each other?"

Jenny halted in her tracks and turned around. She thought Irit had told her daughter already but evidently she had been in the wrong about that. "Well, that's a long story, Ziva. Perhaps we should save that for some other time, deal?"

The girl shrugged indifferently. "Sure."

"Alright."

To be continued

A/N: Please let me know what you think.

I'd also like to ask if there is anyone who knows a of a good beta reader for NCIS fanfiction stories? I'm considering asking one to help me out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Title: Once upon a summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on the show. I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**CHAPTER 8**

**THE LITTLE BACK YARD**

**The back yard of the Gibbs/Shepard house:**

Tony kicked the football high into the air, catching it as it descended back down again.

Gibbs waved to him from the other side of the lawn. "Come on, Tony. Kick the ball already." He joked. Gibbs, Tony and Tim had placed themselves in a triangle across the lawn, kicking the old football back and forth to each other. Tim was standing a little closer to Gibbs to close the distance some since he couldn't kick as hard as him or Tony. Tony however had insisted on backing all the way to the fence even though it meant he also had to kick the football hard enough to make it travel the distance back to Gibbs again. He was doing quite well, according to himselfespecially**.**

Abby had not wanted to join. Gibbs had introduced her to a swing hanging from a high branch in the maple tree and she had immediately pulled herself up onto it with Philip under her left arm, watching the boys kick the football. She was happy she didn't need anyone to push her. She had learned to do that a whole year back and was now proudly showing the others her skill.

As soon as Ziva and Jenny showed up Gibbs kicked the football to the side and told Abby to hop off the swing.

"Jethro, I think the pizza will be here any minute. I'll go set things up in the kitchen."

"Sure Jen." He turned to the two elated boys, the still somewhat quiet little girl and the somewhat sullen older girl who had now joined the others. "We'll take a look around in the meantime."

Tim scanned his surroundings. The house and the back yard were surrounded by a white picket fence with a standard arbor above the little gate, covered in roses. The back yard was kind of picturesque. But it still managed to be fitted with pretty much everything he could think of that anyone could want in a garden, without making it look like it was squeezed in. There were a couple of tall trees, a very small vegetable patch over by the house wall, the swing, an area big enough to play ball games in and just play regular games in without getting lost while doing it. There was a porch that you could come out onto through the kitchen door. On the porch stood comfortable outdoor furniture and it looked like the perfect place to have lunch or an evening meal if the summer weather allowed it. Three steps led down from the porch to a stone garden path that lead through the lawn over to the little white gate.

With the house at your back there was a shed to the left. Gibbs headed toward it and beckoned the others to follow his lead. He opened the door and they all entered behind him. The place was filled with tools, sawhorses and a long workbench. The shed was small and what was inside it took up most of the space.

Tim fingered something that lay on top of the workbench. He picked it up and studied it with curious eyes. "What is this place?" He asked.

Gibbs took the chisel gently from his hands and placed it back on the workbench. "_This_ is my workshop shed." He explained and walked a little further in so they could all fit in there better. "I work a lot with wood. This place allows me some privacy while I work."

The kids all looked around. "Are we allowed in here?" Ziva asked, reminding herself how a place of privacy in her family meant that you simply should not enter…ever.

"Yes. As long as I'm in here with you. But not on your own."

She raised both eyebrows. "Why?"

Gibbs had to hide a grin at her ability to question everything without fear or shyness. "Because of things like these." He picked up the chisel that Tim had held and showed it to them, touching the point of it carefully with his thumb. "It's sharp. I have lots of dangerous tools in here. Such as this one," He picked up a saw, "And this."and then a knife. "You're not allowed to pick them up without asking me first. Ok?"

All four kids nodded. "And I don't want you in here by yourselves. It's not a place to play in." he explained calmly.

Ziva shrugged. "In Israel I am allowed to carry knife in my belt in I choose to."

Tony's lip quirked in a smile and he couldn't help teasing her a little. "You're not wearing a belt now." He said and fingered the hem of her yellow sundress.

She quickly pulled her dress away from his thumb and index finger with an annoyed puff of air. "Mind your own business."

Gibbs put a heavy hand on Tony's shoulder as he walked past him to signal that that would be enough of his fun for the moment. "I'm sure you are, Ziva. But I would prefer if you didn't. I hope you can respect my wishes when it comes to that." He said seriously as he locked eyes with the girl. "Can you?"

"Yes." She simply answered and looked away, out the window. She did not like it when people made fun of her or when they told her what to do, but she did not want to snap at Gibbs. He seemed like a nice enough man, and he even seemed to somehow respect her in a way most adults never did.

"Good. I can assure you, you won't need a knife here anyway." he gently patted her head and felt her freeze under the touch. Again he felt her need to be strong on her own.

Outside Jenny's voice called out for them, telling them it was time for supper. As he exited the shed Gibbs stood aside and let the kids rush past him. Ziva came out first, closely followed by Tony and Abby. Tim was the last one to walk out the door and as Gibbs' hand moved toward the door handle Tim was there first and shut the door thoroughly behind him before running to catch up with the other three kids.

Gibbs smiled to himself at the sight of the four of them for the first time hurrying through the porch door together. He then looked back at the shed and contemplated starting to lock the door now that they were around but quickly thought better of it. If he wanted them to trust him he would have to do the same. Kids were smart…and he was already convinced that these four were particularly bright. Only in different ways from each other.

**-%%%%%%To be continued%%%%%-**


	9. Chapter 9

**Title: Once Upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: I wanted to say thank you so much to all of you who has taken the time to reviewe. I really appreciate it and your thoughts. **

**Sorry this is such a short chapter, but I kind of wanted it that way. The next one is longer.**

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**CHAPTER 9**

**AT THE DINNER TABLE**

**Tim's POV:**

I reached for my glass of milk. The pizza was great. I hadn't eaten since before I got on the bus to Washington. I was careful to chew my food with my mouth closed and not talk with my mouth full. Everything my parents had told me to do while staying with strangers. Or actually, they had told me to always make sure I did that.

Gibbs sure had ordered the best pizzas ever. One for each of us but we all took a slice here and there from each others' boxes to taste the different kinds there were. Tony wasn't fond of sharing the pizza that had ended up in front of him, even though I'm sure he knew it wasn't meant for just him, he seemed to feel he had some kind of tabs on it. He even managed to argue his case to the point that we almost believed him…that made both Gibbs and Jenny laugh. But then they took it away from him anyway, and that made him pout a little.

I glanced at Abby, wondering how old she was. I could tell she wasn't as big as me, that was easy enough. But I still wanted to know her exact age.

**Ziva's POV:**

I nibbled on an olive while I listened to Jenny patiently answering Tony's questions about her and Gibbs' jobs as Federal Agents. Apparently they solved all sorts of crimes working for NCIS. Murder, espionage, assault and lots of other things. I could tell there was more, but Jenny probably did not want to tell him everything they investigated. Tony seemed ecstatic. He also did not seem to be able to stop talking. He had been going on and on for the past twenty minutes now. I had clocked him.

I was getting more and more desperate for some time by myself. With exception to my ten minutes alone in our room earlier, I pretty much had not been left alone since the flight. That had to be some sort of record for me.

**Abby's POV:**

I bit my bottom lip. I was seated between Gibbs and Jenny at the round table in the kitchen. Tony was sitting on Jenny's other side, so he was too far away for me to ask. I wanted to ask but I wasn't sure if I dared to in front of everyone. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that I really needed to go real bad. I couldn't sit any longer and wait for Jenny to stop talking to Tony so I could ask her either. Finally I tugged on Gibbs shirt underneath the table. He looked at me with a gentle expression. I was afraid he would ask me out loud what it was I wanted, so that everyone would hear. But he didn't. Instead he leaned a little to the side so I could whisper in his ear. I craned my neck a little and whispered.

"Gibbs…I need to go to the bathroom…now."

He nodded quietly that that was okay. He didn't seem to understand. So I pulled at his shoulder to get him down to my level again. "I don't know…where it is."

His mouth formed a quiet o and he smiled at me. That made me feel good. At first I had thought to ask him to tell Jenny to go with me, but now I guessed I would be okay with him too.

He reached for my hand and excused himself and me, telling everyone we had some secret business to attend to, with a wink at me, and that we would be right back. I liked his nice smile.

**Tony's POV: **

Gibbs and Jenny sure had a cool job. Through aaaall the years I had lived I had thought about what I wanted to do when I grew up. I had gone from taxi driver to real-estate agent to spy and so on. But I had not been able to make up my mind for some reason. Maybe it was a cop I was destined to become…that was probably it, yes. But right now I needed to focus on the giant slice of pizza with pepperoni and cheese in my hand, because the cheese was dripping on the floor from my holding it for so long. I shrugged, oh well, and took a big bite, noticing Ziva's expression of disgust in the process.

**-%%%%To be continued%%%%-**

A/N: Please send me a thought or two in the form of a review.


	10. Chapter 10

Title. Once Upon a Summertime

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.

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**CHAPTER 10**

**Hidden tree house**

**In the back yard**

**Tim's POV:**

**That evening was the first time Gibbs ever showed us the hidden tree house in the back yard. We didn't know it then, but that tree house would prove more useful that summer than any of us had ever expected. **

We put our plates and forks and knives in the sink and Jenny said she would take care of the dishes tonight. But she also explained that the rule was that after tonight we would all take turns helping her or Gibbs clean the table and do the dishes or dry, every evening.

But tonight we were off the hook since it was our first evening at the little house at 1242 Pineroad. Gibbs took us out in the backyard again and finished showing us around. Like everything else it was not big, but it wasn't boring either. I could see that one could easily find things to do in this back yard. There was the swing and the lawn where you could play football or something else involving a ball of some sort. Not that that was one of my biggest interests in the world but it worked. Looking around I noticed that there were enough places to hide around here to play hide and seek. You could hide on the front side of the house and behind Gibbs' shed. There were bushes underneath the kitchen window that would do well to hide in and there was the maple tree to climb up into or you could hide behind its trunk.

"Why are we going out here again?" Ziva asked. I thought she seemed like a brave person for some reason. I wasn't really afraid of Gibbs myself either anymore, but she didn't seem to have a problem questioning anything. I was not that brave. "We've seen everything."

"I thought you should see the tree house." Gibbs answered her, stopping in the middle of the lawn, his blue eyes targeting the maple tree.

"Tree house?" I glanced around the backyard. I didn't see a tree house anywhere. And the place wasn't that big. Was Gibbs trying to trick us? "I…I don't…see a tree house, Gibbs." I had gone over to addressing the Federal Agent _Gibbs_, the same as Tony did. It felt better than always saying Agent or Special Agent first. And Tony was right; Jethro sounded very strange. For some reason it reminded me of some sort of dog.

Abby came up by my side. "I don't see one either, Gibbs." She frowned in confusion.

"No, no you wouldn't yet." He said looking a little mischievous. With a dramatic wave of his hand he said, "Follow me." We crossed the small lawn and walked past the maple tree with the swing Abby had been on before. There, behind the maple tree, closer to the white little fence stood a proud Walnut tree. Gibbs folded some branches to the side and allowed us kids to step in under the tree. He then followed us. Tony looked at him skeptically.

"So, where is this tree house, Gibbs?" he asked impatiently.

Gibbs grinned and pointed upward. I tilted my head back and looked up. There high up in the branches and leaves was indeed a tree house. I looked around for a ladder and noticed that Ziva had circled the tree and was standing on the other side. I did the same and noticed the ladder leading up to the tree house.

"Wow." I managed to whimper as I stared up at the tree house. It was great. Just the right size. But it was sooo high up. I would never be able to climb up there without fainting from my fear of heights. I glanced up again and felt dizzy just from looking up at it. It was impossible.

Tony was already on his way up the ladder. "Wow, Gibbs. Did you build this?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Not all of it. The floor and walls were already here when we moved in. I just fixed it up. I made the roof, windows, ladder and the mini balcony with the ladder."

We all looked at the tree house in awe. Then Abby spoke up. "But Gibbs…you don't have any kids. Why did you up fix it?"

"Fix it up." He corrected. He seemed to think for a moment about the answer to her question before answering. It was like he wasn't completely sure himself. "I guess I just had a lot of time on my hands then. And I didn't like seeing it half finished like that."

He stepped over to the ladder and took hold of Tony's waist, lifting him down and planting him on the ground again. "Hey!" Tony protested.

"No, not now." Gibbs said calmly but in a determined voice. " You can all climb up there tomorrow. Right now it's time for bed."

"But don't you think someone should check it out and make sure it's safe for us to be up there first?" Tony asked. "Someone small enough to fit up there without bumping his head in the ceiling causing a leak when the rain comes, I mean. "

Gibbs laughed. "Maybe. But you can still do that _tomorrow_, Tony."

Tony's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Oh okay."

Gibbs ruffled his hair some, "Good boy." He then turned to me. "What do you think, Tim? Is it good enough?"

I made an attempt to smile, despite my nervousness. "Yes, Gibbs. Of course. It's great." I gulped a little as I looked up at the tree house again. "And very high up. " I whispered to myself.

Abby pulled Gibbs sleeve to get him to crouch down. "Is Philip and me allowed to go up there too?"

Gibbs scratched his chin a little in thought. "Well, Abby. How old are you?"

"Six." She said with downcast eyes.

"Are you good at climbing?"

She nodded and looked a little more confident. Tony tapped Gibbs on the shoulder.

"I'll help her, Gibbs. And I'll keep an eye on her."

Gibbs contemplated this with his hands on his thighs for a moment. "And what about Philip?" he said seriously. "Will you look after him up there too?"

Tony grinned. "I promise." He assured him.

Gibbs smiled a little crocked smile. "Yeah ok. Abby you have my official permission to be up there too." He stood to his full height. "Now I just have to get it past Jen." He mumbled to himself as he stalked out of the leafy hideout.

We remained where we were, just looking in the direction he had went, wondering what to do. Suddenly we heard a shout from outside. "Hey! Let's go! When I leave you follow. Marsch."

We scrambled to follow quickly. As we exited I suddenly remembered something. I hadn't heard a peep from Ziva for a while. I looked around but she was nowhere in sight. I peered at Gibbs who was waiting for us to catch up by the porch steps. Tony and Abby were headed towards him and I started to follow, but I stopped when I heard a rustling sound above my head. I turned and looked up at the maple tree with the swing. There on one of the highest branches sat Ziva causally dangling her legs. It was almost as high as the roof of the house. I wasn't sure what to do. I wanted to yell out to her but what if I scared her and she fell. She could die. I wanted to cry out to Gibbs but what if he got really mad at Ziva. I didn't want that either.

I stood there frozen in place for a while, just staring up the high tree. The maple was higher than the Walnut tree with the tree house. What if she fell? What if she did? It would in a way be my fault. Gibbs was going to freak when he discovered her up there. I was sure of it. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I looked up I saw him standing there next to me, looking up the tree as well. I waited for the explosion and panic that I thought sure would follow, but they never came. His expression was nothing like I had expected. He looked calm and relaxed.

He pointed a finger at Ziva sitting in the tree. She looked down at him. When Gibbs saw she had noticed him there he beckoned her with his finger."You. Bedtime. Now."

And that was all he said. He actually even turned around and left after that, bringing me with him. He didn't even seem mad. He just seemed confident that she was on her way down after having been told, by him, to climb down. He didn't look back to make sure. He just seemed to know.

**-%%%%To be continued%%%%-**

A/N: Please take the time to send me a review after reading this. It makes writing a lot easier knowing it's appreciated.


	11. Chapter 11

**Title: Once Upon a Summertime**

**Author: VictoriaBard**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and great feedback on this story. I'm sorry I haven't replied to all reviews I received on chapter 10, I accidently deleted them from my mailbox before I had a chance to reply to them. I'm really sorry about that. I hope you'll keep reviewing anyway.**

**Someone asked if Abby and Tim and Ziva and Tony are going to fall for each other in the story. It's not really a plan of mine for this story, sorry. I prefer to see them as friends looking for adventures and a fun time here.**

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**CHAPTER 11**

**Madame Black and Madame White  
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Leroy Jethro Gibbs quietly shut the door behind him. It was the second time now that he had tried to sneak out of the boys' room without waking up Tim, who seemed to be having some trouble finding peace this first evening in their home. He had asked to go to the bathroom. Gibbs had taken him. He had asked for a glass of water which Jenny had gotten for him from the kitchen. He had asked for some fresh air, and Gibbs had opened the window. Finally Jenny had gone to see to the girls while Gibbs had seated himself on the side of Tim's bed to wait for him to fall asleep. A few minutes ago he had at last closed his eyes. Gibbs had remained still a few minutes extra to really make sure he was asleep before getting up to leave.

Tony was lying in his bed with the light from the bedside lamp illuminating his side of the room. Now and then he would peer over at Gibbs and grin. He could see the Agent was somewhat eager for Tim to go to sleep, but the boy didn't seem to realize that he was probably keeping the man from his own bed or something else important. Gibbs never said a word about it though. He just told him to close his eyes now and then when he would discover him looking at the ceiling. Tony himself was busy reading a book. It wasn't something he did a lot but what else was there for him to do? There was no television in the house. Gibbs had told him that before when he had asked.

"_But then what should I do for fun before I go to sleep?"Tony asked._

"_Read a book." Gibbs replied with a shrug and a grin._

"_A book?" Tony said incredulously. _

"_Yeah, you know. One of those things with pages that you turn."_

"_Oh…one of those."_

Just as Gibbs had shut the door all the way and taken his first step away from it a familiar sound was heard from behind the closed door. He sighed and turned around and reentered the room again.

"Yes, Tim? What is it?" he asked gently.

"I…I…could you stay a little longer, please?"

Gibbs rubbed his own neck as he walked over to the boy's bed again and took a seat. "Sure, buddy. You just close your eyes and try to get some sleep now." He turned a little to look at Tony who was still reading. "Hey, Tony. Do you think you could turn off the light now? I think it might make this go a bit easier." He said with a discrete nod toward Tim.

Tony sighed but put the book aside and reached for the lamp switch. "Do you know what you need, Gibbs?"

"No."

"A TV downstairs."

"Go to sleep."

**-%%%%The girls' room%%%%-**

Jenny stroked Abby's hair from her face gently as she stood up. The small girl had fallen asleep immediately, being so exhausted from the day's events and all new impressions it had brought with it.

The NCIS Agent moved instead over to the older girl's bed. She reached for the blanket and tucked her in a little more and then stroked her cheek slowly up and down once. She took a seat, careful not to sit down on one of the girl's feet.

Ziva lay on her right side, facing the window. She had insisted to keep the window open a crack and even though Jenny had done her very best to try and talk her out of it she had not succeeded. Finally Ziva had gotten her will, at least for tonight. Jenny left the window open just a crack.

"Do you think you will be able to sleep now?" she asked.

Without looking up Ziva murmured into the pillow. "Why would I not be able to sleep?"

Jenny smiled at the girl's bravery. "I don't know. Maybe because you're in a new place. Or maybe because Abby has already fallen asleep."

Still murmuring into the pillow Ziva answered, "That will not bother me. I will be fine."

"All right then. " Jenny stood. "Good night, Ziva. I'll see you in the morning."

Ziva nodded but didn't answer until Jenny had reached the door. "Good night, Jenny." She said quietly, but loud enough for the woman to hear before closing the door behind her.

**========================%%%% Ziva's POV%%%%==============================**

Solitude. Being by myself. It was something I was used to. I even felt more comfortable by myself for some reason. I did not know why. Of course I could often feel lonely as well. But it was my choice to be alone. I needed to be alone. To be able hear myself think.

I was sitting up in my bed, watching Abby sleep peacefully in the bed next to mine. I gazed longingly at the open window. In Israel I was used to being able to go wherever I wanted in our neighborhood during the day. At night of course I had to stay inside, but I did not always follow that rule. More than once I had snuck outside to be alone and watch the moon shine brightly down on me in the dark.

I sighed and felt restlessness grow inside. I needed something to do. I started braiding my long brown hair to occupy myself with something. I thought back to the incident with the maple tree an hour earlier. Gibbs had not been angry I had gone up there. He had given me a small scowl when I got inside but that was pretty much it. He felt very tolerable somehow. But I could tell he was the sort of person who expected his orders to be followed once they were given. I respected him for that. And for the way he seemed to accept me.

I looked around the small room. Abby was still sound asleep. I did not feel tired at all. No, I could not just sit around and do nothing until I got tired. I needed to do something. Suddenly it occurred to me that I had not yet taken a look around the neighborhood. None of us had. There had not been time.

I rose from my bed and made my way over to my suitcase. We had not yet had time to unpack and all my clothes were still in there. I quickly changed out of my linen nightgown into a pair of soft cotton pants and a sweatshirt. I chose to ignore the socks. I did not really like socks and avoided wearing them if I could. My sandals were downstairs, and since I was not planning on using the door I did not feel like taking the long way down there to retrieve them first, so I chose to remain barefoot. Before going to the window I grabbed my clothes and a quilt from the foot of the bed and tucked them underneath the cover, making sure they covered my own length perfectly. I stood back and admired my work. It looked just like I was asleep in my bed.

Quietly I climbed up into the window seat. I pushed at the window and opened it all the way. The view over the back yard and the street was nice. I had deliberately chosen the bed closest to the window. Windows made me feel free. I leaned outside and confirmed what I had noticed earlier. The roof right outside was flat enough for someone to sit on without accidently sliding down and falling to the ground. I hoisted myself up and sat crouched at the window opening, looking out. I inhaled the fresh air deeply and smiled. I then took the first step out onto the roof. Knowing the size of the house I figured the window that belonged to Gibbs and Jenny's room was on the other side of the house, so as long as I was quiet enough not to wake Abby I would be safe.

I stood up on the roof tiles and took in the view once more. It felt great to be out here and free. I took a few steps to the right and one step closer to the ledge and then sat down on the tiles. I just sat there listening to the crickets and the sounds of the untamed night. I thought of my homeland and my parents. My mother had insisted I would come here for the summer. I never understood why. My father had not been too happy with the decision but he had went along with it in the end anyway. My mother did not often tell him what to do, but this time she had been very persistent and determined about my future. I wondered how my mother and Jenny knew each other and from where. All my mother had told me was that they had become friends in Israel, not in the US. I figured I would find out the truth eventually anyway.

I glanced towards the ledge. Earlier I had noticed the trellis against the wall and decided it would probably hold my weight. I could easily use it as a ladder to get down to the ground. It would be much better than using the front door inside the house where I would risk running into Gibbs or Jenny or accidently waking one of them up.

I decided I had been sitting on the roof long enough and that it was time to go exploring. I needed to know my way around the neighborhood.

I stood up and walked the rest of the way to the ledge. I stood there peering down for a moment assessing how far it was to the ground. A fall would not be good. But I was not planning on falling down. I sat down again with my feet over the edge and then turned around and grabbed hold of it. From that position my bare feet could feel the trellis and I started climbing downwards, one step at a time, all the way. When there were only three steps left I jumped and landed with a thud on the soft grass.

* * *

**Time: 0130 am**

**Tony's POV:**

I opened my eyes. There was that muffled sound again. At first I thought it was just in my dream, but now that I heard it for the third time I realized that it wasn't. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my fists and my eyes then darted around the room. From the position on my back I glanced over at Tim who was asleep in his bed. He didn't seem to have made the sound. It had been soft and quiet. If it had come from Tim it would have been louder since he was laying so close to me. Reason number two would be because he snored.

There it was again. I sat up. The bed made a squeaking sound and I winced hoping it would not wake the younger boy up. It had taken him forever to go to sleep. After all, I needed my beauty sleep. I looked around the room for whatever it could have been that made that sound. From my new position I realized it came from the room next to ours', the girls' room. And the reason it travelled so conveniently all the way in here was probably because of the wardrobe uniting the two rooms.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed. I fumbled for my slippers in the dark and finally managed to find them. I hurriedly up from my bed because I now knew what that sound was. It was someone crying. Odds were it wasn't Ziva so it had to be Abby. Hearing her cry made me feel so sorry for her. I really didn't like hearing her cry. The fact that she was crying though didn't bode very well, I thought. The girl needed to get some sleep. I had to go check on her. I wanted to do that preferably without waking up Gibbs and Jenny so instead of heading for the door to the hall, I turned the door knob to the closet and entered, quietly closing the door behind me.

I tiptoed across the floor in the wardrobe in my pajamas and carefully pushed the door to the other room open. I entered and glanced around the room. The window was open.

"Hmm, weird." I thought. I walked over there and closed it. "That's better."

I continued to look around the dim room and noticed Ziva's sleeping form in the bed closest to the window. Man she looked stiff when she slept. However, when I looked over at Abby's bed it was empty. Oh no, I thought. Had she gone out the window? There was no sniffing sound anymore. I was about ready to jump out the window after her when I noticed the small foot sticking out from underneath the bed. I sighed in relief.

I walked over to the bed and crouched down next to it, lifting the covers and blanket to peek in under it. "Hey, Abby? You under there?" I asked even though I already knew she was.

A small pathetic "Uh huh." Came from under the bed, accompanied by a sob.

"What are you doing under there?"

"I…I g…got scared." She sniffed. "I hid."

"Oh." Now I understood. "Well don't you want to come out now? There is nothing here to be afraid of."

"No! Not coming out. Wanna stay here."

I threw my hands up in front of me as defense, "Ok! It's fine." This girl could obviously be very determined when she wanted. I glanced over at Ziva, she was still asleep. Abby's cry hadn't woke her up. "I'm coming in, Abby."

She didn't object. I lay down on my stomach and pulled myself under the bed. The younger girl lay flat on her tummy with her face buried in her arms, crying. I placed myself next to her and gently pulled one of her braids. "Hey, hey, why are you so upset?" she didn't answer. Okay maybe this was going to be harder than I thought. "Do you miss home or something?" I asked, hopeful I would guess the right reason.

She sniffed and nodded into her arms. "I miss my mommy and daddy." She started crying again. She then looked up at me, eyes over flooded with tears waiting to escape down her already puffy cheeks. "And I'm scared."

There we had it. Something I might actually be able to change. "Of what? There is nothing here to be scared of, Abby."

This time she didn't move her face from her arms. "I'm scared of the lady in black." She said in a muffled tear filled voice. "She's gonna come and get me when I sleep. She said so."

"Did you have a bad dream? Is that why you are so scared?" I asked in a soft voice to try to calm her. She had now started to hiccup because of all her crying that had probably been going on for a while.

"Yeah…." She had to stop because of a hiccup, "I dreamt about the lady if black. But she is gonna come and get me…and Philip too. She's real!" She looked up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm scared, Tony."

Gently I put my arm around her and brought her closer. "You don't have to be scared Abby. I won't let her take you..." I grabbed Philip who was practically drenched in tears lying underneath her folded arms."Or Philip."

"Tony, I want to go home." She cried.

I suddenly remembered that I had no idea what had brought Abby to Gibbs and Jenny for the summer. "Where are your parents anyway?"

"In K...K…" she couldn't seem to remember the name. "In Africa." She settled. "They are doctors and they are helping people who are sick. I was not allowed to come."

"Oh. Bummer."I tried to make my brain work. I needed to think of a way to make everything ok for Abby so she could sleep. I hardly had the power to transfer her parents here from Africa in one minute so I had to come up with some other way to comfort her.

"Abbs?"

She quietly nodded her head.

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Uh huh."

"Good. Well, since you already know the truth…about the lady in black being real and all, I'm going to tell you the full story about her and the lady in white."

Abby's eyes grew big as saucers. "The full story?" I handed her Philip and she hugged him tight to her chest. "How do you mean?"

"You mean you've never heard the story about Madame Black and Madame White?" she shook her head and I sighed deeply for dramatic effect. "Ts tsk tsk. Well then, I'm going to tell you the story, so you understand why you won't have to be afraid of the lady in black anymore." I held up an index finger close to her face. " It's a true story, and I'm not kidding about that."

Abby was listening intently; I could tell I had her full attention from that moment on. "Do you want to hear the story?"

"Please."

"It's a little scary at times but I swear it all works out in the end, okay?"

She nodded and wiped her tears away with the sleeve of her pajama jacket. "Tell me."

"Ok. Just hang on a second first." I started to get out from under the bed when she grabbed my sleeve.

"Tony, don't go."

"I'll just be a second. I'm just gonna get the blanket and a pillow in here." I assured her and then continued to make my way out. As I was standing on my feet again I considered getting my flashlight from my suitcase but then decided the moon light coming from the window was illuminating the room enough as it was. It would do. I grabbed the blanket and a pillow from Abby's bed and then made my way in underneath the bed once again. I took my place next to Abby and then pulled the blanket over both of us and gave her the pillow to rest her head on. I smiled a little when she instead put Philip there and made sure the duck was comfortable before telling me to please start the story.

I rested the side of my head on my left arm and turned my face towards Abby. I had never heard of the lady in black before and was pretty sure it was something Abby had either made up herself or just dreamt, but I figured that didn't really matter. "Okay so you've heard of the lady in black, right? Well, her name is really Madame Black. She's a middle aged woman dressed all in black. She wears a black dress that falls all the way down to her feet, and a long black cloak in silk with a hood that she sometimes wears over her head. Her fingernails are painted black and she has her grayish hair pulled back in a strict bun. You sure are right when you say she's bad. She's really bad, evil in fact. And she _is_ scary. She's also very strong and powerful and she hates people, everyone in fact. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. She still hates you. So no one wants to run into her anywhere, because if you do, she will take you, and you will most likely never turn up again. " I paused to keep a yawn from escaping. Abby had now moved Philip from her pillow and was hugging him close again. I took a breath and was about to continue when I was interrupted by a little tap on my right arm. I sighed. My arm was probably going to fall asleep but what the heck. I stretched my arm out and allowed Abby to scoot a little closer and put her head on my stretched out arm. "Better?" she nodded so I took the opportunity to continue. "Madame Black is not human herself, oh no. She's something else, I just don't know what, but it's not human. She is the bad element so to speak. The dark side of everything." I could feel Abby shudder and hurried the story along. It was even starting to scare me a bit now. "But as always when there is evil, there has to be a force…" no that was star wars, I reminded myself, "I mean a power, that is good. There has to be balance between the two. Because otherwise…nothing works in the world. And that good power also has to be strong, so it can protect everyone against the dark power, which is Madame Black. The truth is that that good power is Madame White." I could feel Abby relax a little and she pulled the blanket up to her chin. "She is the opposite of Madame Black. She is dressed completely in white. She wears a white dress and a white silk cloak with a hood sometimes hiding her face. She's very beautiful but like Madame Black, she's also very powerful and strong. She is the protector of the people, of us. And she keeps Madame Black away, because Madame Black knows that as long as Madame White is around, she can't hurt anyone, and if she would try, she would get hurt herself instead."

Abby's head shot up, "How? How would she get hurt?"

"Well… she would get attacked by a kind of lightning bolt in white. It sort of happens automatically if she tries to hurt someone and Madame White is close by." I explained.

"But if Madame White is far away when Madame Black tries to hurt someone or takes someone away? What happens then?"

"Then that person unfortunately gets taken by Madame Black. But don't worry. Because I happen to know that Madame White protects this very neighborhood. It is her kingdom, and she sees anyone living her as her people. She feels extra protective of the neighborhood and the people living here. Especially children like you…"

"Like _us_, Tony."

I rolled my eyes slightly, not really willing to admit being a kid to someone so much younger than me. But I gave in."Okay fine, like us then. Anyway, I know for sure that Madame White's not gonna let anything happen to you. Madame Black doesn't have a chance to get close to this little house."

Abby looked very seriously at me. "You promise?"

I held out my pinky for her to hook her own pinky onto. "You have my word, Abbs."

That seemed good enough for her. She wiped the remaining tears away with the back of her hand and sniffed a little, but no more tears came. "You feel like lying down in your bed now?" I asked and was relieved when she nodded her head slowly. I could tell she was getting sleepy and could hardly keep her eyes open. "Come on then."

Before going back to my own bed I tucked Abby in and took a final glance at Ziva. That girl sure was a heavy sleeper.

* * *

**To be continued**


	12. Chapter 12

Title: Once Upon a Summertime

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.

CHAPTER 12

A WALK UNDER THE NIGHT SKY

**Ziva's POV:**

I opened the little white gate and walked out into the street. It was very calm. An empty street now at night. I started walking up the street while looking at all the houses along both sides. They all looked nice and homey, but I had to admit neither one of them had the hominess of Gibbs and Jenny's little house. Still, they were all right.

There were gardens with swings and sand boxes. A lot of the people living on the street must have kids. There were not many backyards or gardens without toys or slides. I could not see any tree houses though. Agent Gibbs seemed to be the only one who had taken the time to build one of those.

Along the street were old street lights lighting my way for me. I was not afraid, despite the darkness. This felt safer than Israel where I usually took my nightly walks.

Three houses up the street I stopped and peered over the hedge into a garden. It was the most overgrown garden I had seen so far. The grass looked like it had not been cut for at least a year and there were garden tools spread out everywhere, old and rusty. The only thing that looked alive in the garden were the at least dozen blue and white hydrangea bushes that almost seemed to have taken over the place. They were beautiful but together with everything else strewn around the garden and the uncut grass and untrimmed hedges, they did a good job hiding the house behind them. It was normal sized and painted yellow. I wondered who lived there. And why that person did not take care of his or her garden better.

I continued trottingbare footed slowly up the street. It was a warm night. Not like at home where it would be much hotter even at night, but still warm enough not to get cold. I was not the least bit tired and I continued walking past houses until I finally reached the end of the street. When the street ended I found myself standing in front of a shrubbery. It was not very dense but it hindered my view of what was behind it. I craned my neck and thought it looked like a hillside on the other side but could not tell for sure because of the dark. The street lamps had ended and I only had the moon to light my way as I began to make my way through the shrubbery. Something told me I should go down there to see what was down that hillside. When I had made my way almost all the way through the shrubbery, and received lots of little cuts and scrapes on my legs for my troubles, I almost tripped over wooden stairs with a railing, leading down the hillside.

"Hmm." I mumbled to myself as I gripped the railing and started walking down the stairs. It was a good thing the moon was there or it would have been pitch black. I made a note to myself to bring my flashlight next time I was going out. The desperate need to get out must have made me forget to bring it.

I carefully stepped down the stairs in the dark, listening to the trees making little scary sounds around me while taking deep breaths of fresh and free air.

Coming down the stairs I walked right into a clearing. As both my bare feet touched the cool grass again I found myself standing in front of a pond. It was surrounded by trees and flat stones lay at the edge of the water. The water glistened in the light from the yellow moon above as I walked closer. I stopped and stood among the trees just watching the water for a while. There was calmness to this place. I liked it. I could hear the crickets play and the branchesswooshing in the light breeze. As I walked closer I saw a brook leading to the pond. Right above the brook was a wooden bridge. I broke into a run across the grass, headed for the bridge. When I reached it I immediately climbed up on the railing and sat there, swinging my legs. I stayed like that for a few minutes admiring the view, until a sound made me freeze. I listened intently and kept completely still. It sounded like...a low growl. It came from the bushes behind me. I was not sure what had made the sound. I was curious to find out but I was not stupid. This was not the time to try my luck. Slowly I began climbing my way, one foot at a time, down from the wooden railing. When I was on the ground again the growl came again, this time slightly louder and more on guard, as if to warn me not to get to close to those bushes.

I turned towards the bushes with my hands in the air. "Fine fine, I hear you." I started stepping backwards. "Going now." I felt its presence as clear as if it had been standing right in front of me. Although I was not sure what "it" was, I had a feeling we would soon meet again.

After turning to glance at the bushes one last time I started running towards the stairs again. It was time to head back to the little house.

**To be continued**

**A/N: Please send a little review with some thoughts.**


	13. Chapter 13

Title: Once upon a summertime

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.

A/N: I apologize for the delay with this chapter. I know it's been a while now. I've had some family issues to deal with that left me without any inspiration or willingness to write. I think I'm back now however so please send me a review with a thought about the chapter and I will appreciate it a lot. I know it's a short one but I'm almost done with chapter 14 now so there will be an update soon. Thanks for your patience.

* * *

**CHAPTER 13**

**LOCKED OUT**

**Ziva's POV:**

Sitting on the roof again I pushed at the window from the outside. Surprised, I noticed that nothing happened. The window didn't budge. It was locked from the inside. Had Abby woken up and shut it? No, that did not seem likely. Perhaps Jenny had come in the room again and noticed the window open more than she had liked. Whatever the reason, the problem still remained. The window was closed and it was now impossible for me to get back in that way without waking everybody up. I reached my hand into the pocket of my dress. Yes, it was still there. I pulled out the fake blue credit card that had come in the mail as a commercial two months earlier at home. My father had given it to me to keep. He had said it was mine to play with. I had not yet, nor was I planning to, told him that I did not use it for playing, but as a very effective key to locked places.

I put the card in my pocket again where it would be safe and climbed down the trellis again. As soon as my feet hit the grass I ran across the lawn and headed for the the front of the house. As I came out in front of the house, I ran up the porch to the front door. I pulled out the card and slid it into the crack between the door and the frame. I tilted the card towards me and then bent it the opposite way. Like I knew it would, it caused the lock to click back into the door. I quickly opened the door and hurried inside, slowly closing the door behind me. I was extra careful not to make a single sound. I locked the door from the inside again and tiptoed upstairs, through the corridor and into our room. As soon as the door was closed behind me I rested my back against the door and let out the breath I had been holding. When I had recovered I quickly changed back into my night gown and jumped in bed. I needed to get some sleep before morning came.  
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"I can't believe you let her climb that high tree, Jethro!"

Gibbs raised a brow at Jenny's aggravation. "Calm down, Jen. You'll wake the kids."

It was seven thirty in the morning and the couple was getting dressed in their bedroom before they headed down to make breakfast.

"Oh don't you try to smooth this over, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. She could have fallen down and broken an arm or worse! Now, if that had happened, what would I have told her mother?"

"Hey, hey, Jen…" Gibbs took a deep breath and walked the distance over to his fiancé. He gently put an arm around her shoulder and applied a little pressure. She tried to shrug his arm off at first but when he persistently kept it there she allowed herself to be calmed. "I didn't mean to upset you. It's not like I _told_ her to climb that tree so high. It's just that like I just tried to explain to you before, I don't think yelling at that girl is the right way to treat her." He gave her a warm smile which she finally returned. "Let me do it my own way, okay?"

"Oh, alright. But don't you dare let her do whatever she wants, no matter how dangerous. We have a responsibility to the kids' parents to look after them."

He let go of her and reached for his red NIS sweater on the bed. "I wouldn't worry too much about Ziva if I were you, Jen. I have a feeling she's pretty capable of - not to mention used to taking care of herself. Don't forget she's from a place that is in more ways than one much more dangerous than here."

"Yeah, I know, Jethro. Remember, I've done work in Israel. "

He nodded and kissed her cheek before going past her out the bedroom door. "How could I forget?"

To be continued


	14. Chapter 14

**Title: Once upon a summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: So here is chapter 14. I hope you enjoy it and please let me know what you think. Thank you all so much for your reviews on the last chapter. They made me very happy.**

**CHAPTER 14**

**A DARE**

**

* * *

**

**Tony's POV:**

I kicked the football high in the air and then bounced it on my knee. I was feeling a little tired. It was probably because of the interruption to my sleep during the night. Before heading out that morning I had looked into the girls' room and found that Abby was still asleep. She probably needed it. I myself had woken up as soon as I heard Gibbs and Jenny start stirring around in their bedroom. Knowing I would not be able to go back to sleep I got out of bed and got dressed right away.

Gibbs pushed the door to the veranda open and walked out. He stretched both arms above his head and yawned. "Good morning, Tony."

"Good morning," I greeted him with a smile.

"Did you sleep well?" Gibbs asked as he joined me on the lawn, taking the foot ball from me and kicking it into the air.

I caught the ball with a jump, "Yeah, sure." Right after answering I reminded myself that lying to a Federal Agent probably was some kind of crime and corrected myself, "Well, to be honest…"

Gibbs raised a brow and waited for me to continue.

"I didn't sleep all that good. At least not all night," I said and kicked the ball again. This time Gibbs caught it and kept it tucked under his arm. He seemed to be waiting for an explanation. "Well, what I mean is that Abby woke me up. She was kind of upset."

"How do you mean `kind of´? Did she have a bad dream?"

"Yeah. But I took care of it. Everything is fine now," I assured him.

Gibbs smiled. "Good work." he walked some distance away and then kicked the ball to me. "Ever wanted siblings, Tony?"

I shrugged indifferently. "Not really. Things are pretty good the way they are with just me and my dad." That wasn't entirely true either I realized but decided to give myself a break with that one. I had never really given siblings much thought, but things were however not always that good between me and my dad. I kicked the foot ball to Gibbs again.

"That so," was all he said. He caught the foot ball in his arms and walked over to me. "Breakfast time," he said and put an arm around my shoulders as he steered me towards the kitchen. It was as if he could feel my struggle to find something to distract him with out there to prolong having to sit down for breakfast. I had too much energy for such unimportant things. "Don't even think about it, Tony." I heard Gibbs say and looked up. "You can do whatever it is you want to do right after breakfast."

I sighed. This guy certainly was good at reading minds.

* * *

Gibbs, Jenny, Abby, Tony, Ziva and Tim were all gathered around the round breakfast table in the kitchen. Jenny passed the orange juice to Tim who filled his glass and then took a drink.

"Pass the orange juice please, Tim," Gibbs asked.

Tim lifted the glass pitcher and tried passing it slightly too fast. As he started to lose his grip his own hands were suddenly steadied by Gibbs's hands. He slowly took the pitcher from him and put it down on the table.

"Sorry," Tim mumbled with downcast eyes.

"It's alright. No harm done," Gibbs assured him.

"So, what's planned for today?" Tony asked, glancing at Gibbs and Jenny as he took a big chunk of his sandwich with ham.

Jenny looked up. "Today we thought we'd show you the park and have a picnic there. It's about half an hour's drive from here. Does that sound okay with everyone?"

"Sure." Tony said. Tim nodded, avoiding speaking with his mouth full. Abby played with a strand of her dark hair and Ziva absently looked out the window.

"Abby?"

"Yes, Jenny."

"Do you like the idea? A little ice cream, playground, kite flying perhaps?"

Abby folded her hands in her lap next to her precious duck. Jenny followed her eyes. "What do you have there, sweetie? Is it Philip?"

Abby nodded with a tiny smile.

"What does Philip think of the idea?" Gibbs asked.

Abby frowned and seemed to think for a minute. Then her face lit up. "Philip likes the idea. He was just worried because he didn't know he would be allowed to come with us." She looked down at her stuffed duck with a look full of sympathy on her face. "Philip is not allowed on school outings or in school at all. My teacher says school girls don't bring people like Philip with them. But Philip doesn't want to be left behind. He will be very sad and scared all by himself."

Gibbs smiled, "Well, here Philip is welcome, no question about that."

Abby broke into a grin and then took her first big bite from her sandwich that morning.

Gibbs turned to Ziva, who was sitting with her back towards him; still busy staring out the window. "Ziva, are you interested in going on a picnic?"

She turned a little and shrugged. "I guess." She said in a less than enthusiastic tone and went back to staring out the window.

"Uh huh. Glad to hear you think it's a good idea." Gibbs said a little sarcastically and returned to his coffee.

"What if it starts raining? I've heard rain is pretty common here in America." Ziva murmured with her chin resting on her palm, fingers almost covering her mouth.

"There's no risk for rain, Ziva," Jenny assured her and patted her head as she walked by on her way to the stove.

Gibbs exchanged a look with Jenny, suggesting to just ignore the girl's sulky attitude for now. "Then we'll head out an hour after we're finished with breakfast. Jenny and I will pack the picnic basket with lunch and some treats, and you kids will just make sure you're ready and wearing something you can play in. Sneakers are a good choice of footwear."

* * *

The car with the two federal agents and four children drove into the parking lot beside the park and stopped abruptly. The sudden stop made everyone' backs hit the back supports with a thud.

"Who taught this guy how to drive?" Ziva muttered in the back seat. Abby giggled and Tony pushed the door open and jumped out first.

"Wow!" he said as he stared out at the lush, green park with woods next to it and a big playground ahead.

"Mmhm, it's an adventure playground," Gibbs explained.

Tim was busy trying to get his seatbelt off.

"Oh yeah, I can see that," Tony said, having trouble tearing his eyes away from the wood playground a few yards ahead. "Come on, Tim, you're slowing everybody down." Tony sighed.

"Take it easy, Tony," Jenny reprimanded, "we're in no hurry," she assured him as she grabbed the picnic basket from the trunk.

Gibbs handed a big blanket to Ziva who took it and started walking off. She stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hang on a second until everyone's ready to go," Gibbs said with a determined look, making her stay put. He wondered where kids got their energy from sometimes.

It seemed a lot of people had shared their interest in a picnic that day, judging by the number of families and couples that were crowding the big grass area around the playground.

"This place is packed," Tony said with a huff. "You sure there's room for us?"

"Oh, we'll fit alright. We don't take up that much room," Jenny said with a smile.

As soon as everyone was ready Abby ran ahead a few paces and stopped, pointing at a green spot next to a couple with a cat on a leash.

"Here is a good spot! Can we sit here?" she asked, Philip safely tucked under her arm.

The others agreed with her that this was a perfectly fine spot. Jenny had Ziva help her spread the blanket on the ground. Tony stood next to the blanket, rocking up and down on the balls of his feet.

"But we're not gonna eat now, are we?" he asked with a frown. "I mean, there's so much to do first. Food can wait right?"

Gibbs chuckled, recalling the event in the backyard earlier that morning. "No, we're not going to eat right away, Tony. You guys go play for a while first. "

Just as they were about to take off Jenny held up a hand stopping them dead in their tracks. "Wait wait." She turned to Gibbs, "Maybe we should accompany them. I mean it is their first time here." She glanced at the kids, waiting to be given orders. Tony, Tim and Abby seemed to be ready to explore the playground. Ziva had taken a seat on the blanket. Jenny wanted to let them go but she didn't feel she could trust them completely so soon and she wanted to feel safe while they were away. The adventure playground and the lawn were too packed for them to be able to have a visual of the kids during the time they were away. She wasn't fully comfortable with that. Tony was old enough to go off on his own, but she hadn't forgotten about the incident at the airport. He seemed to have an act for finding trouble. Tim was still very young and Abby was definitely too young to be on her own. However in the company with the others she would…

"Are you done conferring with your own mind, Jen?" Gibbs interrupted her thoughts. He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "They'll be fine." He turned to the kids. "Right?"

Tony nodded, "Of course, Gibbs.

Gibbs turned to Ziva who by now had found a comfortable position on her back. "Ziva?"

"I was not planning on going with them, Gibbs."

He took two strides over to her and picked her up, planting her firmly on her feet. "You are going with them, Ziva, " he said. He wasn't angry, just determined.

She sighed deeply and threw her hands in the air as she joined the others.

"We don't need anyone to come with us," Tony assured them. "We're old enough to go on our own. And we'll take care of Abby," he glanced at Tim, "and Tim."

Timmy scowled at Tony, "I can take care of myself, Tony." He said in an offended tone.

Before Tony had a chance to speak again Jenny jumped in. "We know you can, Tim. "she looked at everyone of them, one after the other, and then addressed them all. "Alright, off you go then all of you. We're right here if you need us."

Tony took Abby's hand. He signaled with his other hand, much like the Generals seated on horsebacks did in old army movies when the wanted their troops to move forward. "Come on. Let's go people."

Tim joined Tony and Abby but Ziva hesitated. Jenny gave her a little push to get her moving.

"Go on and join them, Ziva. You can't hang around here all day."

"I was not planning to," she mumbled as she glanced off to the woods to their right. She then followed the others anyway without protest.

They walked off towards the playground which seemed overcrowded with kids all different ages.

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**Tony's POV:**

I looked out at the adventure playground in front of us. I didn't really like playgrounds but I could see this one was special. It was a wood playground with bridges high up in the air that you had to cross to get to different little huts. There were several lookout towers that you could only reach by climbing a rope. It was immense. A little further away were several sets of swings. I saw Abby eyeing them.

"I'm going to go climb," Ziva said and quickly walked away. I saw her grab hold of the bars determinedly and start to climb higher and higher. She certainly had no fear. Secretly I wanted to show her I could climb a lot higher than her. But I could see Abby was longing to go to the swings.

"Do you want toswing?" I asked her while still staring up at Ziva, now hanging upside down from a bar with her braid dangling down.

Abby nodded.

"Tony,"

I stopped and turned to Tim. "Yeah,"

"You really want to climb, don't you?"

"I can do that later." I lowered my voice some, "I don't think Abby can get swinging by herself."

"I can push her," he insisted. "You go climb with Ziva."

An irritated voice from below interrupted us. "Hey, I can too get swinging by myself! I don't need anyone to push me. I've known how to do that myself like…forever now."

I peered at Abby with one eye open and then smiled at her. She was obviously quite a spitfire when she wanted to be. I considered this for a moment. She didn't seem to mind if I took off climbing either. She was holding Tim's hand and Philip tucked under her left arm, wearing a scowl. "Ok, fine," I said, "We'll meet you over by the swings in a little while."

The two of them walked off hand in hand while I went to do some exciting climbing.

I looked around for Ziva. Looking up, squinting I saw her high up in the mightiest lookout tower. To get up there I had to climb a rope all the way up.

When I finally reached the tower I was panting. Not wanting to show that to Ziva I turned my face away while I tried to catch my breath. When I finally turned she had disappeared. Stunned I looked out the tower window to see if she had silently jumped down. It wasn't very likely though because of how high up we were. I jumped when suddenly someone fell from above the window and a face stopped right in front of me while I leaning out the window.

"Aah!" I yelled and took a step back.

I quickly recovered as I recognized it was Ziva's face. She was hanging from the roof with her legs wrapped around something.

"Shalom," she said with a grin.

I straightened my t-shirt, "Sha-what?" I yelled, frustrated and a little embarrassed that she had caught me off guard. "Don't do that again."

She rolled her eyes at me. "It means _hello _in Hebrew," she swung back and forth with her arms hanging down past her head. "And I will do what I want. Not my concern that you scare easily."

"I wasn't scared! Just…surprised," I protested loudly, "And I wouldn't want Gibbs and Jenny to catch you doing that. They'd freak."

She shrugged, as best she could from her position. "Maybe." She replied carelessly. As her face was starting to turn red she pulled herself up on the roof again.

"You're not the only one who can do that, you know," I yelled after her with a frown. "I can too." I knew she hadn't exactly challenged me in the sense of using actual words but something in her eyes kept telling me she was challenging me in her own way. Only without actually saying it.

"Oh, sure you can, Tony," I could hear her chuckle up there. That made me mad and I decided to show her. If she could do it then I definitely could too. I was stronger than her. Not to mention faster. I had proven that at the airport. I stepped up into the window and turned around so I was facing the inside of the tower. I grabbed the ceiling edge and pulled myself up onto the roof. It was quite the view from up there. I happily got to my feet and dusted my hands off while smirking at her.

"See," I replied. "You're not the only one who can climb. "

"Where are Abby and Timmy?" she changed the subject. She was sitting with her back to me right at the edge, dangling her legs.

"Over by the swings."

She nodded and continued staring off at something.

"You looking at the woods or something?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

She shrugged again and answered with her back still toward me. "Because I'm considering going there to take a look around." She stated casually as if it was the most ordinary thing a person could do.

"By yourself? Just like that?" I could feel my mouth was slightly open so I made sure to close it.

Slowly Ziva turned around with her eyes suddenly resembling a cat's slit- like eyes , "Yes. Why not? You do not think I dare go there on my own?"

At first I thought to protest and tell her I believed her. I wouldn't want her getting into trouble. But then my mind drifted to how she had intentionally embarrassed me minutes before, and all that good intention disappeared for a moment. Instead I grinned at her and raised a brow.

"I dare you."

**To be continued**


	15. Chapter 15

**Title: Once upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**

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**CHAPTER 15**

**NOT YOUR DAY TO DIE**

**Tim's POV:**

"Guys, this is stupid. Please, can't we go back now?" I begged them but Ziva just continued walking with determined steps. The four of us were headed into the woods next to the playground. The woods were thin and didn't look very scary but something told me we weren't supposed to go in there. "We should stay on the playground."

"Why do we have to bring them?" Ziva asked, glancing at Abby and I.

I was holding Abby's hand and we were trying to keep up with Tony who in turn was trying to keep up with an angry Ziva.

"We couldn't just leave them alone on the playground, now could we, Ziva?" he answered her.

"Why are we going in here?" Abby asked and squeezed my hand a little tighter. "It doesn't look very nice. Philip doesn't think so either."

Tony turned around and walked backwards, "It's okay, Abby. Ziva is just going to show us something and then we'll go back again."

Ziva halted and pointed ahead, "There it is! The stream." She started running toward it. She was really fast. Tony took off after her. He was also really, really fast. I wish I could run as fast as them, I thought.

I exchanged a look with Abby and we both shrugged and started following them at a more human pace. I wondered what had those two so worked up.

When we got to the stream Tony had waded across to the other side where Ziva was already standing with her arms crossed, eyeing him.

"See, I did it. What do you have to say about that?"

Tony shrugged. "Well, I guess it's pretty impressive…for a girl."

Abby and I approached just to see Ziva's eyes turn even darker than their natural brown color.

"Guys, what's going on?" I asked, trying to get Ziva's attention away from Tony. She looked like she might actually punch him.

Tony turned to us with a sigh. "I bet Ziva that she wouldn't ever go into these woods and all the way to this stream by herself." He fell into thoughts.

"Why would you do that, Tony?" I asked.

Ignoring my question Tony gave a little laugh before turning back to Ziva. "And actually, now that I think about it. You didn't make it!"

Ziva narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"The bet was that you would dare go here by yourself…and you didn't." he gestured to himself and Abby and I. "We're here with you. So it doesn't count. It's not scary if you're not alone."

Ziva's mouth dropped open. She just stared at Tony in disbelief at first. And then it came. The furious yell that rustled the leaves on the trees.

"Tony DiNozzo, you are a cheater! You know quite well that I never asked you to come with me!"

Abby and I actually took a step back at hearing her angry voice. I don't think I've ever heard anyone sound so mad. I thought Tony would be scared too but he just offered her a smug smile. That only made Ziva even madder.

"You came even though I told you all to stay!" she yelled at all of us.

"It doesn't matter, Ziva," Tony grinned. "You still lost the bet." He turned and started wading back across the stream again. When he reached our side he put his shoes, socks and sneakers that he had taken off before back on and started tying the laces. "Don't be such a sore loser, Ziva. It's not my fault you're afraid of the woods and all the scary animals in America, "he teased her mercilessly, making me wonder what she had said to him before to make him want to piss her off like this.

"I want to go back now," said Abby. She seemed a little anxious and wore a worried frown.

"Yup, it's time to go back." Tony announced and stepped over to us. He reached for Abby's other hand.

He froze as Ziva yelled at the top of her voice, "Tony stop!"

He turned with a slight frown. "Give it a rest, Ziva. We don't have time to give you another shot to win this bet. We have to go back."

"Gibbs and Jenny will be waiting for us by now," I filled in. Going back sounded like a good plan to me. And I was glad I didn't even have to suggest it myself this time. Especially since Tony and Ziva probably already thought I was a scaredy-cat as it was.

"Do not move, Tim!" Ziva yelled again and suddenly jumped into the water, letting it splash everywhere and soak her pants and t-shirt.

"Why not?" I asked in a perplexed voice.

"Either one of you three move and it will be your own fault!" She yelled as she practically flew across the stream over to our side.

Suddenly I heard Tony gasp and Abby cry out. I felt her let go of my hand and I heard her back away. I felt something move across my left shoe with a slithering movement. Shakily I looked at Tony and followed his gaze to the ground. There it was, one of my worst nightmares. A snake! It made a hissing sound with its tongue as it slid forward. I wanted to cry out too. I wanted to scream for help but my voice was caught in my suddenly very dry throat. What if I suddenly moved? Or shook my foot to get rid of it? Or what if I fell. I did feel dizzy. What if I fainted? The snake would bite me then.

It felt like time was moving in slow motion as all sorts of thoughts went through my head. I must have been standing there several minutes, I thought. But that didn't add up either because Ziva moved very fast and all of a sudden she was standing in front of me with her hands held out in front of her. She was talking to me but I couldn't hear what she was saying.

"What?" I said in a shaking voice and looked up at her.

"I said, look at me Tim. Don't look down. Look at me instead. Tony do not move!" Tony froze again. He looked scared too. I couldn't see Abby so I figured she must be behind me somewhere.

"Ziva…" I whimpered. Right now I didn't care if I sounded scared because that's what I was. I was terrified. I really wanted someone to go get Gibbs but I knew he wouldn't make it in time before I fell or moved.

"You will be okay as long as you do not move, Tim," she said in a hushed voice. I decided to trust Ziva. She seemed to know a lot about snakes for some reason I didn't even want to know about right now. I gulped as she cautiously moved one step closer to me. Suddenly she dove to the ground and grabbed the snake, just below its head. I couldn't believe it. She was holding the snake, as if it were nothing more than some twig she's found on the ground. She turned its head towards her face and looked into its beady yellow eyes. The snake hissed at her and I dropped to my butt on the ground with a thud.

"Ziva, let go of that thing! It could kill you!" Tony yelled out in an angry, worried voice. "Are you crazy?"

She calmly looked at him, with the snake still in her grip. "No, I just have this phobia of all the scary animals in America." She retorted. She then walked over to the stream and dropped the snake in the water. "Go, now. It is not your day to die. You cannot help some people almost stepped on you."

We watched as it swam away down the stream.

When I realized I was still sitting on the ground hyperventilating I made an effort to take a couple of deep breaths and then got to my feet.

"Ziva."

She stopped staring after the snake and turned.

"Thank you. I…I…" I shook my leg to make sure it was still there. "I don't know what to say."

"Forget it. It was nothing." she shrugged indifferently.

Tony just stared at her. He was obviously impressed. "How did you do that? And how did you know _how_ to do that?"

She rolled her eyes at his questions. "Tony, I am from Israel. We have lots of dangerous, poisonous snakes. I have to know how to deal with them…and situations like that."

"Oh," he nodded. "I guess I can see why that would be important. I have after all seen the movie _Anaconda_."

"_Anaconda_?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's a type of snake that's reeeaally big. In the movie the snake sort of…"

"We have a much bigger problem than a little snake, right now." Ziva interrupted. "Abby seems to be gone."

Tony spun around and his eyes darted around. "Abby!" he called out. "Abby, come out! The snake is gone now!"

But Abby didn't come out. A thought entered my mind. "She probably went back to get help."

Tony put a hand to his forehead. "That means she's gone to Gibbs and Jenny. And that she's probably told them everything."

**To be continued**

**A/N: Please review.**


	16. Chapter 16

_**Title: Once upon a Summertime**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on "NCIS", I'm just borrowing them for the story.**_

_**A/N: Hello everyone, I hope you're all well. I'm finished with chapter 16 now and as you can see it's out. I'm having a little rough time at home at the moment so I would really appreciate a review after you've read the chapter. It would make my day. I know in what direction I want the story to go but its taking me a little time to get there since I don't want to rush it. If you think it's moving too slowly then please let me know. I would appreciate all feedback.**_

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**CHAPTER 16**

**The Senior Field Agent**

A piece of cake, huh? Taking care of these kids this summer was going to be a piece of cake. Those had been Jen's words to him, Gibbs thought as he ran as fast as he could through the woods, leaping over rocks and fallen logs as he progressed. What was going on here? Why had they suddenly decided to come here instead of staying at the playground? He hadn't understood much of what Abby had been trying to say between panting and crying. Something about a stream and a snake and Tim's foot and the snake trying to eat him to death. Anyway he had heard enough and had taken off in the direction she had pointed.

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**Tony's POV:**

How could I be so stupid, I wondered? So stupid as to challenge Ziva. I should have known she wouldn't back down. And thinking back I also realized I had done it to make trouble for her because I was angry at her for embarrassing me. I knew now that that was stupid. But it was done and I couldn't jump into a time machine and undo it anyway.

"Come on, Tim! We have to get back right away!" Ziva yelled and signaled for Tim to hurry up and catch up with us. Ziva and I were running as fast as we could, at least as fast as possible with Tim accompanying us. We were trying to get back to explain to Gibbs and Jenny what had happened. But now we stopped to give Tim a chance to catch up. I put my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

"You're right about that," A voice from behind spoke. I didn't have to turn to know it was Gibbs who had spoken. "You can turn around now."

Slowly we did as he said. I heard Tim approach from behind and stop a few paces behind us.

"Are you all right, Tim?" Gibbs asked.

I didn't hear him answer so he must have nodded instead.

"Glad to hear that," Gibbs stepped closer to us and Tim came up and took his place next to me.

Sweat was visible on Gibbs forehead so I assumed he had run fast to find us. I felt bad about that because it probably meant he had been worried. He had a grim look on his face but didn't look like he was gonna start yelling anytime soon.

"If I'm not mistaken I believe we agreed you'd go and play at the playground. Not way out here in the woods."

"With the snakes," Tim added quietly. I scowled at him. If he didn't keep quiet he might end up making it worse.

I looked into Gibbs piercing blue eyes. His gaze was steady and I could feel mine wavering. "What did Abby tell you?" I asked, carefully.

Gibbs was quiet, studying each of us in turn. Then he spoke. "She came running to us yelling about a snake being on Tim's foot."

I felt like Gibbs was mostly looking at me for some reason. That probably didn't bode well.

"I wondered how a snake could end up on Tim's foot while he was playing at the playground. But when she pointed at the woods I came here instead."

He shifted his stare to Tim but softened it a little. "Are you sure you're all right? The snake didn't bite you?"

Tim shook his head and pointed at Ziva. "No, Gibbs. Because Ziva saved me. She took the snake right off my foot and put it in the stream. It was…" he looked at Ziva who appeared indifferent. "It was amazing."

"That true, Ziva?"

She shrugged. "I moved the snake, yes."

"That was brave of you."

"No, not really. I simply did what needed to be done."

Gibbs nodded. He seemed to understand her and what she meant by that. Gibbs crooked a finger at us. I had a feeling it wasn't the last time we would see that finger crooked accompanied by that look in his eyes that said follow me.

We started walking back to the picnic spot on the lawn again. The three of us were quiet and so was Gibbs for the moment. I wasn't going to lie to him when he asked us the reason we had gone into the woods. It didn't seem like a good idea at all to lie to him.

When we reached our picnic spot Jenny was sitting on the blanket and Abby was sitting on her lap, being rocked back and forth. When they spotted us Abby immediately got up and ran to us. She threw her arms around me and almost knocked me from my feet as she hugged me.

"Tony, I'm so glad to see you." She looked up from my chest with tear-filled eyes, "You're alright, "she let a tear fall and then let go of me and attacked Tim with a hug instead. She soon let go of him too and went to Ziva who looked a bit surprised to receive a hug.

Jenny got to her feet. "Thank God. Everyone all right?"

"They're all fine, Jen." Gibbs bent down and took a sip of coffee from his mug before clearing his throat. He then pointed at us four. "Now I'd like to know what events lead to your meeting with that snake."

I gulped and wished I too could have a drink before getting into that. But I didn't think it was the best time to ask for one so I let it go. We walked over and took a seat on the blanket with Gibbs and Jenny seated in front of us. They both wore pretty grim expressions.

"Tony? Could you explain, please." Gibbs asked, or rather ordered nicely.

"Uhm, yeah Gibbs. Well…"I started. I licked my lips and tried not to think of how dry my throat was. "I guess you could say it was a bet." I glanced at Ziva. "I bet Ziva that she couldn't go into the woods by herself. We saw the stream from the lookout tower and I told her she had to go as deep as that stream by herself to win the bet." I looked down, avoiding Gibbs and Jenny' stares.

"Why would you do that, Tony?" I heard Jenny ask. I felt Gibbs' hand under my chin and lifted it to look at her. "That really wasn't very nice of you."

My stomach churned at hearing that. "No, Ma'am," I admitted guiltily.

Suddenly something I hadn't expected happened when Ziva spoke up.

"It was not entirely his fault."

Gibbs' and Jenny's eyes shifted to Ziva instead of me and I exhaled.

"No? How was it then, Ziva?"

"I how do you say…annoyed him before he made that bet."

Gibbs nodded, "Not to mention that you also _agreed_ to that bet, Ziva."

"You should have said no and left it at that, " Jenny concurred.

She waited until she had our full attention then fixed us with a serious stare. "No more bets. Understand? It can only end badly."

Ziva shrugged, "Agreed."

I nodded. "No Ma'am, no more bets." I assured her honestly.

She settled for that. "Alright, good. Who's up for lunch?" she lifted the lid on the picnic basket and peeked in. "We have bologna sandwiches, fresh fruit, salad and so on…"

I was just about to ask for those treats Jenny had said she brought when I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Jen, I think Tony and I will take a walk before we eat."

I felt my appetite disappear. I looked up at Gibbs. I wasn't afraid of him but I hated when people were disappointed in me and he probably was just that right now. It wasn't really a big wonder though. Usually when I met people I would do something wrong and they would first be disappointed in me and then lose faith in me completely. I didn't like it but that's the way it was. Gibbs was no different than my father or anyone else on the planet.

We walked away from the others and across the lawn, towards a kiosk over by the parking lot. We trotted toward it in silence and I tried not to worry about what he was gonna say to me.

"You want a popsicle?"

I almost fainted. "What?"

"I asked if you wanted a popsicle."

Was he crazy, I wondered. Why would he be nice to me and ask me that now. This was just weird. My dad certainly wouldn't have asked that after I had disappointed him.

"So, do you?"

"Uhm…yeah, I guess."

We walked up to the window and I picked a strawberry popsicle. Gibbs didn't want one so he only bought one for me and coffee for himself. We walked in silence for a while and suddenly ended up on a dirt road that we had driven our way here earlier. I wondered if we were gonna walk all the way back to the house before he finally decided to speak.

"Tony, do you know what responsibility means?"

"You mean the word?"

"Mhm."

I scratched my head. "Well, sure. It means you're responsible for something." I thought about it for a while as I licked my popsicle. "And I guess it kind of means that you're important."

Gibbs smiled. "Good answers," He sipped his coffee and kicked a pebble that skirted into the grass at the side of the dirt road. "Do you know what a team leader is?"

I shook my head, not sure what he was getting at.

"I've been a part of two different teams. In the one I'm part of now I am team leader. That means I am the one on the team who is most experienced." He paused and looked at me. "It also means I'm responsible for the people on my team. I'm responsible for their safety."

I took a bite of my popsicle and a shill ran down my spine. I wasn't sure where he was going with this.

"How old are you, Tony?"

"Nine."

"And a half, right?" Gibbs grinned and drank from his coffee cup with a satisfied expression. He must really love his coffee.

"Yeah."

"And Ziva?"

"She's eight."

"And Tim?"

"Well, he's seven."

"Abby?"

"She's six years old." I frowned, "But you know all that, Gibbs. Why are you really asking?"

"That makes you the oldest, Tony. And guess what that also makes you?"

I was starting to see where this was going…maybe. "Uhm…team leader?" I asked hopeful.

Gibbs gave a little laugh. "Nah, I wouldn't go that far." He said. "But it makes you the oldest and most experienced person in your group. It makes you responsible for the others, Tony. It means it's your responsibility to try to make sure they're safe. "

I looked up. "This is about me betting Ziva that she couldn't go into the woods alone, right?"

Gibbs nodded, "Mhm. That wasn't very responsible of you."

I sagged my shoulders. "No, I guess not."

"Ziva could have been hurt. And so could you. Not to mention the fact that you and Ziva brought Abby and Tim along. "

A car approached slowly on the dirt road so we got to the side of the road. As soon as it had passed Gibbs moved out and made room for me again so I wouldn't have to walk in the grass.

Suddenly Gibbs stopped and sat on his hunches in front me.

"What I'm saying is that you need to be responsible, Tony. Just like the senior field agent on my team is responsible when I, the team leader isn't present, you need to take care of your friends here."

"Since I am the oldest."

"Yes."

I smiled at Gibbs who suddenly took a bite of my Popsicle with a grin.

"So do we have a deal?" he asked and extended his hand to me.

I nodded and shook his hand. "We do have a deal, Gibbs."

He got up again and started walking in the opposite direction, leading back to the kiosk and our picnic spot. "Good. Then let's head back. All this talking has made me really hungry."

For a moment I just stood there, listening to Gibbs' steps behind me and the birds' chirping up in the high trees. I smiled and put my hands on my hips. I now knew for sure what I wanted to become when I got older. A senior field agent.

**To be continued**

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**A/N: Please review this chapter. Thank you so much for reading.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Title: Once upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: Hi, sorry it has taken me so long to update. I've finally finished chapter 17 and as an apology for taking so long to update I've also almost finished chapter 18 so I will also be posting that one in a few days. Please let me know what you think because it makes writing a lot easier. I hope you enjoy this one.**

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**CHAPTER 17**

**EXPLORING**

**Tim's POV:**

When we returned home that afternoon Gibbs and Jenny vacated to the living room, suggesting us kids go outside and play. Ziva made an attempt to sneak up to the room she shared with Abby with the feeble excuse she was tired and needed to rest. Jenny stopped her though before she could escape with the objection that she knew from her mother that the only time Ziva was ever tired during the day was if she was sick.

When Tony suggested we'd explore the neighborhood Abby and I agreed it sounded like fun, since neither of us had taken a look around before, except for driving through it while arriving the day before and going on the picnic. Ziva, however, claimed it unnecessary since she had already seen it before. She took off to sit in the tree house and said she would wait there while we explored. I thought it was strange, and I believe Tony did too, that Ziva had already seen the neighborhood. When could she have had time to see it? We had been inside the house, together in the backyard or on the picnic the entire time since we got here the day before. It was definitely strange.

The three of us headed out through the white gate with the rose covered arbor above and went out into the calm neighborhood street. We started walking up the street first. It seemed to be a quiet neighborhood. Probably not a lot of crime here or anything like that, I figured.

"Can I hold your hand?" Abby asked Tony who nodded and grabbed hold of her small hand.

"Come on, let's take a look around," Tony said and we continued on.

All houses had either nicely cut hedges or painted fences surrounding them. Three houses up Pineroad was an older house with an extremely overgrown garden. The house was an old, yellow wooden house and would probably have been beautiful if it hadn't been for all the Hydrangea bushes that was in the way of anyone's' view of it. It also could have used some new paint in a few places.

We stopped outside and peered over the wooden fence that was so old it looked like it was about to topple over in some places. Tony lifted Abby a little so she would be able to see too, being shorter than Tony and slightly shorter than me.

"Who do you think lives here?" I asked.

"Don't know," Tony answered absent mindedly as he stared at the garden. "It's…nice… sort of. It could use a little paint here and…there."

"And someone cutting the grass," I added.

Tony put Abby back on the ground again and we continued walking. We stopped when we realized Abby was still looking at the house and the overgrown garden.

"What is it, Abby?" I asked.

"I know who lives here," She said and turned to us with an enthusiastic expression. "It's Madame White!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused.

Tony squirmed a little where he stood. "Abs, this is not where Madame White lives."

Abby frowned as she stood on her toes trying to get a better look over the fence. "How do you know?"

Tony shrugged, "Well…uh…she lives in the neighborhood but it's not here."

"Who's Madame White?" a familiar voice asked from behind our backs.

We all spun around and found Ziva standing there with her hands in the small pockets of her tank top.

"Ziva? What are you doing here? I thought you said you wanted to stay behind," Tony said while stealing a glance at Abby who seemed to be on her way to the gate.

"Jenny made me come," she shrugged. "She and Gibbs gave me a key to the house. They went to pick up some groceries and told us to let ourselves in if we get back before them. So…" she looked expectantly at Tony, "Who is Madame White?" she grinned almost as if she already knew the answer. Or perhaps she just knew it would embarrass him to have to tell. He didn't have to though since Abby happily stepped in instead.

"She's the protector of this neighborhood, silly. She lives here." She pointed at the house. "This has to be it. I'm sure of it."

Ziva continued to look expectantly at Tony with a grin on her face.

"It's a long story alright," He said throwing his hands in the air. "Come on, Abby, this isn't Madame White's place, okay?"

"But..,"she started to protest.

"We need to get going or we won't have gotten any further than this old house by the time it's time to get back," Tony insisted, stepping back and taking Abby by the hand leading her along.

We were out strolling around the neighborhood for almost two hours, just scanning the area as Tony called it. It was a nice neighborhood. It gave us all a welcoming feeling. After a while I didn't think it would be possible for anyone to come to this neighborhood and not feel welcome. We met some neighbors and they all said hello and welcomed us to Pineroad. Everywhere we went we heard, "Oh, so you're the kids living with Jenny and Jethro in their little house." People were kind and it almost felt like they already knew us.

Most houses had white picket fences or fences painted in warm colors like red or green. The houses weren't luxurious but they were nice enough and all very cozy and homey looking with curtains in bright colors in the kitchen windows and outdoor furniture with lemonade pitchers and an occasional apple pie on the table in the backyards.

We walked until we reached the last house furthest up the street. We could see a shrubbery from some distance away but before anyone had time to go any closer Ziva suggested we'd go to take a look at a store she had noticed earlier while we were driving by. We all agreed.

We walked past Jenny and Gibbs' house and a couple more and turned right. We left Pineroad and entered the somewhat bigger avenue instead. At the end of the avenue was a slope. The neighborhood was situated on a hill and to get there you had to walk or drive up the slope. We made our way down the slope and in the middle there was a small market place. It was the one Ziva had meant. We went inside and it was actually smaller than small, it was downright tiny, but still seemed pretty well organized. The owner introduced himself as Fergus with the "Best prizes and best service in Washington DC.". He was in his mid twenties, had curly brown hair that didn't go past his ears and wore overalls. He smiled at us, patted us all on the head and gave us a lollipop each, letting us choose any flavor we wanted. We all thanked him before leaving his store.

On our way back Abby insisted she wanted to see Madame White's house one more time before heading inside. She insisted even though we all thought it might rain soon so finally we gave in and walked right past Gibbs' and Jenny's house with our sight set on the aged yellow wooden house. Between that house and Gibbs and Jenny's house were two other houses. The one next to Gibbs' and Jenny's was a wooden green house with white corners and the one next to what Abby referred to as Madame White's house was a wooden light brown house with white cornersWhen we were passing the red house we noticed it had a different kind of fence behind the white picked one. It was more of a grating and inside three big German shepherds strolled around. They all glared at us from the other side of their prison and showed their teeth and growled.

I took a step back as one of them fixed me with a dark stare and barked at me aggressively.

"What's wrong, Tim?" Tony chuckled. "You afraid of the dogs?"

Looking down at the ground I tried to hide my blushing.

"Stop teasing him, Tony," Zivaadmonished. "Maybe he just does not like dogs. Especially dogs like that. Who would keep dogs like them," She wondered.

Tony nodded, "I'll bet they're there to keep burglars away," he said, "A person would be crazy to even go near…"

"Where's Abby?" I exclaimed as I looked up from the ground. She wasn't behind Tony anymore.

Tony flailed his arms behind his back and quickly spun around in search for Abby. "What the…she was here just a second ago clutching my t-shirt."

"Well, when did she let go?" Ziva asked.

"I don't know."

"You did not feel her let go?"

"No! Now stop bugging me and find her instead."

Ziva sighed, "She certainly has a way of disappearing into space."

"The term is _without a trace_, Ziva," Tony corrected.

"Whatever."

While they were busy arguing I stepped to the side of the house and noticed agrating gate. It looked to be the way to enter the back yard but the odd thing was it stood wide open.

"Tony! Ziva!" I called out to them. A second later they came running. "Look!" I pointed at the open gate.

A look of fear spread on Tony's face and he rushed to the gate with Ziva not far behind. I carefully entered carefully behind them. What we saw once inside scared us all witless. Abby was approaching the dogs who were all growling at her to keep her distance.

Tony and Ziva treaded carefully towards Abby. "You know any ways to ward off dogs?" Tony whispered.

Ziva shook her head. "I do not."

I stopped by the gate. I wanted to continue but I just couldn't bring myself to go any closer to the growling four legged creatures from that place which name I'm not allowed to speak. Their eyes kept darting back and forth between the four of us and froth escaped their mouths. One of them was digging his front paw into the dirt like a bull ready to charge forward.

Suddenly Abby turned around and glared at us with a frown on her face. "Go back;" she said forcefully with a frown, "They don't like you. That's why they look so mad."

I could feel my bottom lip quiver and I wanted to yell for Abby to run.

Ziva turned her head towards me and told me to stay there. I didn't really have a problem with that. Ziva and Tony were both faster runners than me anyway.

"I distract the dogs; you grab Abby and run for the fence." I heard Ziva say.

Tony shook his head. "No, you and Tim go wait outside while I grab Abby."

"No time to play Hercules now, Tony. You need a distraction." Ziva started moving slowly to the left while Tony continued forward towards Abby. She was standing too far away for the dogs to reach her in one jump but close enough for them to reach her in three big strides.

Suddenly Abby stomped her foot on the grass. "I said go back! They like me. They're not mean, really. They just want a friend to play with."

"Abby, back away toward us, _slowly_," Tony said but only got a pout in return from Abby. "You have to do it, Abs. Please. The dogs are dangerous."

Instead of listening Abby stretched out her hand to the dogs and called for them to come to her.

"No, Abby," Ziva tried but Abby didn't back away but instead took a step closer to the dogs.

By then Ziva had come pretty close to the three dogs and Tony was only a few steps away from Abby. He raised his hand and Ziva kept a close eye on it and when he brought it down she started her best dog bark impersonation at the dogs. They all turned stunned faces towards her and Tony quickly moved forward and grabbed Abby's arm. Lifting her from her feet he ran for the fence which separated the light brown house and the yellow house with the overgrown garden from each other. The three of the dogs barked at Ziva and looked ready to jump her but when they heard Abby's surprised yell from being yanked from her feet and Tony's footsteps they took off after them in a wild chase. Tony was slow while running and lifting Abby underneath her arms at the same time but luckily the fence wasn't far away. Ziva and me received our own problem when one of the dogs abruptly turned and decided to go after his own appetizer- us. I hurried to the other side of the gate and held it open for Ziva as she ran as fast as she could to make it out before the beast reached her.

"Ziva, this way, hurry!" I yelled at the top of my lungs to be heard over the dog's loud barking.

"Close it, Tim! Close the gate!" Zva yelled. Without knowing why I scrambled to do as she said. The dog was only one meter away as Ziva made it to the gate. With elegancy andelasticity she jumped halfway up the gate and grabbed hold of the edge. She quickly pulled herself up and landed with a thud on the rubble on the other side next to me.

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**To be continued soon **

**Please send a review with some thoughts and let me know what you think, or just to say hello. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Title: Once upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: Sorry it took a little longer than I expected but here is chapter 18 of this story. I hope you like it and please review.**

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**CHAPTER 18**

**Meeting Mrs. Eleonora Tapps**

**Tony's POV:**

I reached the fence and in a desperate attempt tried to push Abby up. She was scared and almost paralyzed and I quickly realized it wasn't the way to go. Instead I quickly climbed the fence myself and with my legs on one side and my torso on the other I grabbed Abby's hands and tried to pull her up onto the fence. The fence was too high for her to climb herself even if she hadn't been so scared and had her usual strength.

"Come on, Abby! I'll pull you up. Don't be afraid," I panted as I pulled with all my strength. "Pleeease!" I gritted my teeth and pulled even harder.

"Tony!" She yelled with panic in her eyes. She must by now have realized the doggies weren't interested in playing after all.

I looked up from her panicked face and saw the two snarling shepherds approach with fierce eyes.

"Noooo! Help!" I screamed as they were only a few feet away. One of them had begun to open its maw and had its eyes set on poor Abby's dangling legs.

All of a sudden I felt someone grip my leg and yank me back. It made me lose my grip and also my balance and topple to the ground on the safe side of the fence. I landed in a rosebush and scraped my arm on its thorns. My head spun and I couldn't look up right away but only glanced to the side. There I saw something white undulating right next to where I was sitting in the rosebush. I soon realized it was a white cotton dress. It looked old fashioned, and it was long, almost like a nightgown. I tried getting to my feet right away but my t-shirt was stuck on a big thorn and I had to yank it free, tearing it in the process to get free. When I got up I saw the person wearing the dress. She was an old lady who looked to be in her seventies. She was lifting Abby underneath her arms and over the fence. I exhaled, not having realized I had been holding my breath all that time.

The old lady planted Abby on the grass and crouched down next to her. I took a leap out of the bushes and stood panting next to them, holding onto my knees.

Abby was crying frantically and still looked terrified.

"Oh, my my, you poor little thing," the old lady consoled while she brushed a tear off Abby's cheek. "Such a horrible ordeal for you two to go through. Are you quite alright there, dear?" she ran her fingers over Abby's cheeks, eyes and nose. I guessed it was to make sure she was unharmed. I found it strange, though, since the dogs didn't come anywhere near her face. Then she started running her hands over Abby's trembling legs instead. "No blood. They didn't bite you, sweetie."

I took a good look at the old lady. Though she was in her seventies she looked quite good for her age. She had a slight tan on her face and had baby blue eyes. Her hair wasn't grey the way it usually was on an old person, but white instead. She wore her long hair in a braid that reached the middle of her back. She wore white soft canvas shoes and around her neck hung a gold necklace with a gold heart locket pendant about as big as two knuckles.

The old lady stood up to her full height and I noticed her excellent bearing and pulled back shoulders. She didn't hunch at all. She looked at me and a smile spread across her face. She had some wrinkles of course but still her face glowed with youth somehow. She seemed so spry.

"Are you all right?" she asked me, but seemed to be focusing her stare on the dogs on the other side. They had quieted some but were still snarling a little and sniffing the fence.

"They can't jump over, can they?" I asked, casting a glance at the dogs.

"No no, they will stay where they are. There will be no jumping over onto my property, no no," she grinned again but still seemed distant. "They're really not bad dogs, you see. They are just real keen on defending their master's home." She took a step closer to the fence and bent slightly over it, glaring at the dogs. The third dog had joined the other two now as well. "Simone, Atlas, Alcmene, your mischief is over now. Go get some sleep and do not bother these children again," she remained in place a few seconds and the dogs, with their tales between their legs, all biting their upper lips, were staring attentively into her eyes. They actually looked ashamed. When she backed away so did they and with a whine they both turned and walked back to their doghouse where they lay down.

"Wow, that was cool!" I couldn't help but call out. "How did you…"

She turned, looking somewhere slightly above my head. "It's all in the attitude, my boy."

I frowned, "Yeah, uh, I guess it is," I agreed despite not having a clue what she meant.

I wiped a little blood from my arm where the thorn had scraped it and then helped Abby to her feet. "Are you, okay?" I asked concerned. She had stopped crying but still sniffled occasionally.

She looked at me with her brown eyes and nodded. "Yes, I'm okay, Tony." She nodded her head at the old lady. "Tony, don't you recognize her?" she whispered.

"What do you mean?" I asked and peered over at her.

Abby did a little excited jump with a wide grin on her lips. Her eyes sparkled excitedly now. "She's Madame White, silly," She said knowingly while rolling her eyes slightly.

I again cast a glance at the old lady who seemed to be busy studying her worn down house at the moment. I lowered my voice, "No, Abs, like I told you before, that's not Madame White."

Abby's shoulders slumped some, "But Tony, look at her. She looks just the way I pictured her."

Not wanting the old lady to turn and notice Abby was pointing at her I gently took Abby's hand and brought it down to her side.

"And-"Abby held up her index finger in the air to make me pay extra attention to what she was about to say, "she saved me from the dogs. That's what you said Madame White does, right? She helps kids…and people, with her powers. Didn't you see how she used her powers to scare away the dogs?"

I sighed. I wasn't sure what I had seen. But I did know this elegantly clad old lady was not Madame White. After all, _I_ was the one who had made up Madame White in the first place to calm Abby down after her nightmare, so I was feeling pretty confident I was right.

"I know all that, Abby but it doesn't matter because she's not-"

"Madame White!" Abby suddenly called out and waved at the lady who turned with a smile.

"Now there is a nice nickname for me, sweetie." She then put a hand to her forehead. "Oh, where in heavens name are my manners? I haven't even told you my name. I'm Mrs. Eleonora Tapps. The owner of _heaven_." She crossed her arms across her chest and beamed proudly at the yellow wooden house.

Abby leaned towards me and whispered, "She probably has a second name too. She can't let people know she's really Madame White, Tony."

I just gave her a little nod and turned and squinted up at the old house. "_Heaven_?_" _I said in a confused voice.

"Yes, " Mrs. Tapps said proudly, "Because heaven is in the sky and the sky is blue. And my house is as blue as the sky itself." She gave a little content sigh, "Blue like the sky on a cloud free summer day."

Abby tilted her head back and looked up at the sky that was now full of rain clouds. It looked like it could start raining any minute. She then peered at the house. "Blue?" she said confused, "But Madame White, your house is yellow."

"Abby, sshh." I hushed her. I was afraid the old lady was crazy or something and didn't want to make her mad. It was quiet a minute as Mrs. Tapps stood with her back to us, and hand to her chin, studying het house. I saw the opportunity to take off then. "Well, we'd better be going now…"

"Yellow?" Mrs. Tapps suddenly exclaimed and spun around. "Do you two mean to tell me that my house is yellow? Not blue?"

"Well, of course it is-" I started.

"Hmm, that Macavoy family…"she mumbled.

We didn't have time to answer that totally weird and confusing question more thoroughly before footsteps were heard on the pebble path running through Mrs. Tapps garden. Ziva and Tim came running; fighting their way through hydrangea bushes to reach us.

Mrs. Tapps turned towards the pebble path as Ziva and Tim approached. "Oh, more visitors." She concluded surprised.

Abby and I moved to stand a few feet in front of Mrs. Tapps.

Ziva arrived first and stopped to catch her breath at the end of the pebble path. "There you are." she said with her breath still caught in her throat. "Are you two all right?"

"Yeah, we're okay." I said.

Tim stumbled to a halt behind Ziva.

"Thanks to Madame White!" Abby pointed her finger at Mrs. Tapps who didn't even seem to notice the act, despite the fact that she was facing our direction. I guess she must have been deep in thought because for some reason she wasn't looking at us, but instead slightly above our heads again.

"Welcome, welcome, my dear," Mrs. Tapps said and beckoned Ziva to come closer.

Tim had lingered behind Ziva, but now he took a step forward and seemed even a little offended that Mrs. Tapps didn't pay him any attention. He was hiding but he wasn't invisible after all.

"Is she your friend?" she asked me and Abby.

I nodded silently.

"I'm afraid I didn't quite catch your response there," Mrs Tapps said.

I frowned, "Yes, her name is Ziva." I answered, puzzled that Mrs. Tapps suddenly seemed so concerned with me answering properly.

"Hello, Ma'am, "Ziva said and stepped forward and extended her hand to the old woman who shook it gently.

"Hello, my dear. I'm Mrs. Eleonora Tapps," She greeted her with a smile.

I was still feeling very suspicious of the old woman by now. There was something just not quite right about her.

"I'm afraid, my dears, that I have told you my own name but forgotten to ask you yours. You must forgive an old woman."

She was looking somewhere else but I understood she must be talking to me and Abby.

"It is Tony and Abby," Ziva answered for us. She turned to me. "How did you get away from those dogs anyway? Did you fly over that fence?"

"No, Mrs Tapps here…uh…helped us," It felt strange that this little old woman, with her serene expression, had actually been our savior a few minutes ago. Anyway that was the case. But, I reminded myself, that didn't guarantee she wasn't dangerous. She was still weird.

"So, Mrs. Tapps, we thank you but we'd better get going now because…"

"Tony! Blood! There's blood on your arm!" Abby interrupted.

I sighed as I glared down at my arm with the string of glistening blood trickling down from it. It stung some but it wasn't exactly life threatening.

"Abby, it's fine. We have to go…"

Mrs. Tapps put her hand on my arm, running her fingers up until she reached the little wound from the thorn in the rose bush.

"Oh my my, poor dear. You should come inside and let me put a plaster on that." She turned and started walking towards her house. "By the way, you should all come inside, my dears. There will be some heavy rain soon. I can smell it."

Just as soon as she had spoken the words a lightning bolt flashed across the sky and rain started pouring down. Thunder rumbled in the distance like angry drums and I had to admit, Mrs. Tapps house looked more and more inviting.

"Let's go," Ziva said and started to follow Mrs. Tapps inside.

I grabbed her arm to stop her. "No, we can't. It could be dangerous to go inside her house like this. We don't even know her."

Ziva rolled her eyes at me and yanked her arm free. "Oh, come on, Tony. She is an old lady. What danger could there be inside her house?"

Abby had already started to follow Mrs. Tapps.

"Abby, wait!" I called out but she didn't stop. Frustrated I turned back to Ziva who now had her arms crossed over her chest, looking determined and certain of herself. "She's acting strange. Usually people look at you when you speak to them. She doesn't. There is something weird about her." I turned to Tim. "You saw it, right?"

"I…I don't really know. " Tim stuttered. "Yeah, I guess I did."

Ziva quietly stared at Tim and me, while for some reason wearing an expression like she couldn't believe her ears.

"What is wrong with you two?" she snapped. "You mean to tell me that you seriously cannot tell that old lady is blind?"

Thoughts ran through my head and I pushed my mental repeat button, going through everything that had happened with Mrs. Tapps the last couple of minutes. She had been looking right above our heads the entire time. This was the reason. She was blind. Blind people didn't focus on your eyes, they just looked in the direction of where your voice was coming from.

"Uh…yeah, sure _I_ knew that. That's what I was referring to. Blind people can often be very violent in America."

She rolled her eyes again and I felt like doing the same for not coming up with anything better than that.

"So," Ziva said gesturing towards the front door of the house, "can we go inside now? Before we get even more soaked."

We all turned and ran through the pouring rain to the yellow "heavenly blue" house.

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**To be continued**

**Please send me a review on the chapter.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Title: Once Upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N:****There is one thing I love about movies and television that books and stories don't have, and that's music, soundtracks. An idea came to me while writing this story that I would like to try out and I would like to ask you who are reading this story to please let me know how it works out. Every now and then along this story I will add a title of a song that for some reason is playing in the background at the location where the characters are. Like in this chapter Mrs. Tapps will be listening to **_**Yes sir, That's my baby **_**by Lee Morse. If you want then I would like you to play the songs I mention at the place where I mention them in the story, to get the feeling which the song will provide for the story. Please let me know what you think of this idea. **

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**CHAPTER 19**

**One unique old woman**

**Ziva's POV:**

We entered the house of the woman Abby called Madame White. I entered last and closed the door behind me, shutting the rain out. We could still hear the rumbling thunder and occasional lightning. It looked like there was going to be a real storm.

The house was bigger than Gibbs' and Jenny's but not as big as mine in Israel. Then again none of the houses on Pineroad were, I guess. Mrs. Tapps lead us into her hall which was small and had a window next to the front door. We took off our shoes and followed her through a narrow and short passageway and into the living room. I could tell it was the living room but that was pretty much all I could tell due to all the lights being off and the blinds being down. The entire room was dark. We walked close to the wall, headed towards the kitchen where we could see the lights were on. The kitchen had light yellow wallpaper and the furniture was white. The kitchen was average sized with kitchen benches in maple along two walls and a big window with view of the garden outside.

Mrs. Tapps steered Tony to the round kitchen table and sat him down there. The table had a tablecloth with cherries on and Tony rested his arms there and leaned forward slightly, finding a comfortable position.

"Take a seat all of you, please. Make yourselves comfortable."

We did as we were instructed and sat down at the round kitchen table as Mrs. Tapps went to a cupboard and retrieved plasters and something to clean the scratch with. It was amazing how easily she moved around in her home despite the fact she was blind. She did not fumble her way along at all but seemed completely sure of where every piece of furniture was and every object in the room. She was completely without fear of stumbling over anything.

There were only four kitchen chairs and I decided to offer mine to Mrs. Tapps when she would find a moment to stop moving around the kitchen. Before I had the chance to offer it though she had easily squatted down next to Tony instead. She felt along his arm again until she reached the scratch and then started to clean it.

"It'll be all better in no time, Tony, you'll see."

"It really isn't a big deal, Ma'am," Tony assured her as he watched her clean and put a plaster on the scratch.

Abby jumped and Timmy gave a little squeal as a crash of thunder was heard outside and the kitchen was lit up by lightning.

"Hm, that one was close," Mrs. Tapps said and stood up.

"How long until that goes away?" Abby asked in a shaky voice.

"I am not sure, Abby," I answered. "It could last a while or it could go away soon, we do not know which." I looked outside at the pouring rain. It looked like the sky had just opened itself up and let all its rain down at once. "But one thing is for certain – it does not look like it is going to stop raining any time soon."

Mrs. Tapps clapped her hands together and grinned. "Well, then! How would you kids feel about some hot chocolate and some home baked cookies?"

Just as the question was out Tony's stomach made a loud rumbling sound itself which pretty much answered the question. Mrs. Tapps chuckled.

"I think I just got a clear answer there," she joked and patted Tony's head before moving over to a cupboardbehind Tony and Tim's backs.

Tony laughed too, "I guess I am pretty hungry."

"Me too, "Tim concurred.

Mrs. Tapps stopped dead in her tracks and turned around facing all of us again. "Wait a moment now, dears. There are four of you? I thought it was just the three of you here, " she said with astonishment. "Who is the fourth little boy I just heard speak?"

Tim looked a little bothered. We had all forgotten to tell Mrs. Tapps about Tim's presence earlier when he hadn't spoken up in the garden.

"I…I…uh, I mean, sorry, Ma'am that I didn't…you know since you can't, uh…see and all that…"

"Tim!" I exclaimed annoyed at him.

"Oh no no, Ziva, please don't get upset with him. There is no need for admonishment. It was simply a mistake made by me not to notice him." She walked over to Timmy and extended both hands to him. "So you're Tim, huh? Nice to meet you."

Tim blushed but took her hands. "Yes, uh, likewise. It's Tim or…uh, Timmy McGee, Ma'am."

Mrs. Tapps smiled warmly and nodded. "That's a very nice name." she said and turned back to the cupboard to take out cups. "Is anyone interested in tea instead?" no one answered as we just glanced at each other. "Silence means hot chocolate then."

I could not see her face, because she had her back to us, but I could hear she was smiling. How Tony could have been afraid of this wonderful woman was a mystery to me. He really needed to get better at reading people's intentions.

"So, kids, you must tell me about yourselves."

We all looked up. "Huh?" Abby uttered.

"Well, I mean who you are, where you live. You do live here on Pineroad do you not?"

"Yes," Tony answered. "For the summer we do."

Mrs. Tapps placed five cups on the table and I started handing them out to the others and put Mrs. Tapps cup next to mine.

"Mrs. Tapps." I started. "We are not exactly from around here. We are living with Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Jenny Shepard for the summer."

"Oh!" she slapped the side of her head a little, "Of course. I heard fromthe Karow family up the street that they were taking in four kids this summer." She clapped her hands together excitedly again, "How lovely! And you all seem so nice and well behaved. Be sure to give my regards to Jethro and Jenny when you get home. They are such sweet people. Jethro even fixed my blender last month. It works perfectly now." she beamed. "Such a gentleman that one. Indeed." She poured some milk into a saucepan and put it on the stove. "So tell me where you are from then."

We all looked at each other, wondering who should start. Finally Tony did.

"I'm from New York. I live there with my father," He said in a tone of voice that made it clear he would prefer if he did not have to elaborate.

"I'm from New Orleans, Madame White. Have you ever been there?" Abby piped up. She seemed to have forgotten about the thunder for the time being.

"No, actually I have not. Perhaps someday I will though," she said with a secretive wink into the air. She never focused her stare directly on our faces when she spoke, because she could not see us.

"Oh, it's great there ! You can go –"

"I am from Israel," I interrupted before Abby took over the entire conversation. "Tel Aviv."

"Oh, really, Ziva. I suspected because of your accent that you had travelled quite far away from your home this summer."

"Yes, you can say that," I said with a sigh.

Mrs. Tapps left it at that and turned her head towards Timmy. "And what about you, my quiet friend?"

"Alameda, Ma'am," Tim answered quietly.

"Where is that?" Abby asked.

"California. I live there with my parents. And…and my grandfather used to live there too."

"Did he move?"

"No, he died," Tim said sadly and looked down into his empty cup.

Mrs. Tapps put a sympathetic hand on Tim's shoulder. "Though it is something we must all face it's always sad when the life of a loved one ends. It's usually even more sorrow filled for the ones we leave behind than the ones who know they´re leaving. Especially when the one being left behind is as young as you are, Tim. "

Mrs. Tapps returned to the stove and poured cocoa and sugar into the hot milk in the saucepan. She stirred a while and then poured the hot chocolate from the saucepan into a jug. She reached for Tim's cup on the table and found it almost instantly. She touched the spout of the jug to the edge of the cup and carefully began to fill it. "You go ahead, please, and tell me when it's enough."

"Thank you," Tim said politely when she had poured almost up to the edge.

Mrs. Tapps filled all of our cups with hot chocolate before going to retrieve the cookie jar on a shelf. At the metallic sound of the lid being taken off the jar my stomach started making sounds too. We all took a cookie. They were chocolate chips.

"How old are you, Madame White?" Abby asked with her mouth full.

"Abby, you don't ask old people stuff like that," Tony whispered.

Mrs. Tapps laughed and took her cup over to a bench next to the sink. She put it down and placed both her hands on the bench behind her and then suddenly jumped, taking a seat on the bench with her feet dangling beneath her. She took a sip of her hot chocolate and looked perfectly content where she was.

"How old do you think I am?"

Abby shrugged, "Uhm…"

"She thinks you're forty," Tony quickly interrupted before Abby had time to say the wrong thing.

Mrs. Tapps laughed again. With her stare focused into space she wagged her right index finger. "No, she doesn't, Tony. Please, let her speak. There is no way for any of you could possibly offend me."

Tony and I glanced at each other, neither of us sure she was right about that.

"Please, Abby dear, go ahead and guess."

"You're probably very old, Madame White. When I pictured you in my head I thought you'd be a lot younger and not have quite so many wrinkles, but I guess no one is perfect. "

"Abby!" we exclaimed at the same time.

"Yes?" she cocked her head to the side and looked at us with big innocent brown eyes. "I'm not being rude. I'm just telling the truth. No one is perfect." she turned to . "I think you're beautiful though. Even though you're old. You have pretty white hair and your eyes are like the ocean and I love your long white dress."

Mrs. Tapps ran her hands over her long white cotton dress on her slender form, smoothing it. She looked down and I was pretty sure I saw her wipe a tear away. Great, I thought. Abby made her cry.

"Oh, Abby, that is just the sweetest thing anyone has said to me in years," she said in a hoarse voice. "You are indeed a sweet little thing." She took another sip of her hot chocolate.

Abby grinned at us in triumph. "So, how old?"

"Oh, yes, I forgot." Mrs. Tapps wiped her mouth with a piece of a ripped napkin. "I'm seventy four in a couple of weeks."

"Really? Are you gonna have a birthday party? Are we invited? Is Gibbs and Jenny invited?"

"ABBY!" Tony and Tim and I all exclaimed at the same time. Tim even managed to knock his cup off the table at the same time.

Mrs. Tapps laughed so much she almost fell down from her place on the bench. When she finally was able to stop she said, "Oh, my they say a good laugh makes you live longer. I think I just became destined to live until I'm a hundred and thirty years old thanks to the four of you." Everything was quiet except for Mrs. Tapps jingling laughter. "Oh, do not worry about the cup, Tim dear. I have lots of those." she continued to giggle while she drank her hot chocolate.

"A birthday party sounds lovely, indeed. But I think I will take some time to just think over the practical details first before I decide."

"We can help you with the shopping if you want." Tony offered.

"That's kind of you, Tony. But I handle all my shopping myself. I love going shopping. I always go to Fergus little store down the hill."

"Well, we could help you carry the bags," I said. "You would probably bring home more supplies than you usually do, Mrs. Tapps, if you were to have a party."

"That is true of course, Ziva."

We sat at Mrs. Tapps kitchen table eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate for at least an hour. I had three cookies, Abby also had three, Tim four and Tony, who of course had to top everyone, had eight cookies. Afterwards we got to move around the house as we pleased and look around.

Her house was not fancy but she sure owned a lot of things. The living room was ample but not huge. Small three foot tables stood in corners and on top of them stood big old fashioned lamps and vases with Daisies, and roses and even an occasional sunflower in wallpaper was light green, which I liked because it gave a feeling of nature surrounding you.

However, that was not what really caught my eye first. For what really drew attention to it was the tree in the middle of the living room. I caught myself just staring at it with my mouth slightly open. The treewas growing right through the floor, coming from underneath the house. Its roots spread out across the area surrounding it, and we had to be careful not to trip over one of them when moving around in the room. The tree was multi-stemmed and its leaves bright green. Its branches stretched about half way to the ceiling.

I felt someone tug my hand slightly.

"Ziva," Abby whispered. "She's got a tree in her living room."

"Uh huh."

"Uhm, why?"

"I do not know, Abby. But I think it looks…nice."

Tony stroked the slim tree stem as if patting a dog or a cat. "Yeah, it does, but it kind of makes you wonder what she has in her bedroom, right?"

"I am fairly sure it is a bed, Tony."

"Yeah, yeah."

There was not a lot of feeling that you could move freely in the living room because of all the furniture and things that were kept there. The furniture was red oak and looked old, not antique, but not modern either and was randomly spread out in the room. There were two sofas, one that looked more like the kind you watch TV from and a wooden one that kind of resembled a park bench, that stood along one wall. There was a coffee table and next to the terrace door stood a wheelbarrow in steel that was filled with dried rosebuds.

There were several cabinets all around the room. Some were filled with wine glasses and jugs and another had teapots and cups inside. Next to a stairwell to the second floor stood a round dining room table with matching chairs. The fire place was lit and I could hear the fire crackling in there. Next to it was a rocking chair with a white sheepskin covering it.

"Do not get too close to the fire, my dears. I don't want you to get burned," Mrs. Tapps called to us from the kitchen.

"We won't!" Tony called back.

Tony headed for the stairs, seeming unable to quell his curiosity. Tim, Abby and me joined him. It was a wooden staircase that turned in a slight spiral to the second floor.

Up there were three rooms and a small bathroom. One of the rooms seemed to be Mrs. Tapps bedroom and had a 19th century bed with the back of the headboard against the wall. The curtains in there were white and there were green plants placed in the window.

"You were right, Ziva. It certainly is a bed," Tony said as we stood in the door staring into the bedroom.

Before we could stop her Abby had run over to the bed and climbed into it and started jumping up and down.

"Abby, no! Don't do that," Tim whined. "Mrs. Tapps will be mad at you."

"No, she won't. Madame White never gets mad. "

"I'm starting to think she's adding to my story a little," Tony grumbled.

"What story?" Tim asked.

Tony shrugged. "I told Abby a story last night about a woman called Madame White. She had a bad dream and was scared and I did it to help her go back to sleep."

I could not help but smile at the image of Tony telling Abby a bedtime story.

"What are you grinning at?" Tony snapped at me.

"Nothing," I said, trying to hide my smile with my hand while coughing slightly."What happened in the story?"

"Well, it wasn't really a story. It was more me telling her about Madame White and what she was like. Like her being good and the protector of the neighborhood and the children there against Madame Black, who's sort of the bad element."

I sighed and shook my head. "Tony, you have seen too much television."

The second room was a study and in there was a sturdy Mahoney desk with a wooden desk chair and a few bookcases with a broad collection of old as well as new books. There were books about gardening and cooking, baking, making jewelry, exercising, classic fairytales etc. A comfortable looking armchair stood in a corner and next to it was a small glass table.

"That is strange," I said and scratched my chin. "Mrs. Tapps is blind, so why does she have books?"

Tony's eyes immediately stuck on the bowl with toffees on the table next to the armchair.

"Help yourselves! It's lovely to have the house full of people who appreciate candy!" Mrs. Tapps voice coming from downstairs made us all freeze. It was like she had read our minds. "Whenever I offer my guests candy they always turn me down. I can never understand why on earth anyone would say no to candy. So, please go ahead now, dears!"

Tony looked puzzled but seemed to shrug it off as he went for the bowl with toffees. After having taken some he passed it to me who passed it to Tim who at last gave it to Abby. Who could say no to free candy anyway? We all had four pieces each.

The third room was locked from the outside. We were all curious as to what was inside and disappointed we would not have the opportunity to find out. For a moment I contemplated taking out the fake, blue credit card out of my pocket and pick the lock open but I decided not to. I did not want the others to find out I could do it. It did not seem like a good idea to share that information with them.

When we came downstairs again we went into the kitchen where Mrs. Tapps was sitting at the table with the radio in the window playing an old song. When we entered she looked up right away and smiled.

"What's that song you're playing, Madame White?" Abby asked loud enough to be heard over the music playing.

"Oh, it's an old song called _Yes Sir! That's My Baby_ by Lee Morse. She sang it back in 1927, I believe." She said and looked like she was daydreaming about something that happened a long while back. "No wait, it was indeed in 1925. Yes, that's right. 1925 it was.

"Please lower the volume just a little for me, Tony, so that I can hear you all better."

We all glanced at each other. If she had trouble hearing us because of the radio playing too loud, how could she know we had entered the kitchen? It was beyond strange.

"I use other senses, remember," she added with a wide grin.

I nodded. "Yes, Ma'am, you really do," I said as Tony scurried over to the window and lowered the volume on the radio some. We could still hear the song playing in the background though.

"The thunder stopped," Mrs. Tapps said.

Then I remembered that we should have been back at the house a long time ago. I looked around for a clock but then remembered that it would be very strange if Mrs. Tapps actually had had a clock on the wall, since she could not see it anyway. So instead I started to excuse us.

"I think we should leave. Gibbs and Jenny are probably back now and worried. I do not know what time it is but…"

"Oh, it's twenty minutes past eight, dear one. And you're so right. They are probably worried about you so it's best you hurry on home now. If they're upset with you just tell them it was my fault for losing track of the time and enjoying your company too much to let you go."

We all just stared at her in awe.

"But…but..," Tim stammered.

"But what, Tim?" Mrs. Tapps asked with an almost worried expression. "Is something the matter?"

"No, no, I just…well how is that possible? You telling the time, I mean."

She laughed and waved her hand in the air. "Oooh that. It's just something I've always been able to do since I learned to tell what time it was as a child. Probably very similarly to the way you've learned."

We all wanted to object and say that it was not exactly the same thing. But neither one of us did. Tony and I shared a look of silence and Abby did not seem to care too much about that particular wonder.

We all ran and got our shoes from the hall and Mrs. Tapps let us out the terrace door.

"It's been lovely having you lot here. Please come back and see me again soon. It's wonderful to hear some noise around here."

Just as Mrs. Tapps had said that we heard a croak and a flapping sound from the tree in the middle of the living room.

"Go away," a voice said, coming from up the tree. "I will eat you…I will eat you."

We all stared at the tree in disbelief.

"What was that, Madame White?" Abby asked with eyes big as saucers. "It came from the tree in your living room."

Mrs. Tapps nodded. "That's just my dear friend, Quincy. He probably just woke up now. He's the laziest parrot I know, indeed. And he doesn't like rain so he sleeps when it rains outside."

We all stared from the tree to Mrs. Tapps. This was one unique old woman.

"You have a parrot?" Tony asked. "Can we see him?"

"Oh, sure," Mrs. Tapps assured us."But not right now. I think Quincy needs to become a bit more familiar with you all before he will show himself to you."

Tony looked disappointed. I felt a bit disappointed too actually. I had never seen a parrot before. But my guess was we had not seen this house for the last time.

We thanked and Abby even hugged her, then we hurried outside. We ran through Mrs. Tapps overgrown garden filled with blue and white hydrangea bushes and out on Pineroad again.

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**To be continued**

**Please take a second to let me know what you think of this chapter.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Title: Once Upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: So, here is chapter 20. I hope you enjoy it and please have patience with me updating so slowly. I've had a lot to do lately with two courses and a job and training so my progress with my writing has been slow for a while. Right now I have taken time off from one of my courses though, so I'm planning on devoting some of that free time to this story. I'm already working on the next chapter. Please send me a review after you've read this so I know people are still reading. It makes writing so much more fun, knowing if people like it.**

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**CHAPTER 20**

**THE RESCUE**

"Gibbs! Gibbs!"

Gibbs spun around just in time to see the four children he had been out looking for the past half hour come out of Mrs. Tapps garden. He started towards them but didn't have to walk far before they had reached him.

Abby flung herself at him and the other three stopped in front of him. They all looked a little shameful, except for Abby who mostly just seemed overjoyed.

As Abby flung herself at him he lifted her up in the air to his eye level.

"Gibbs! Do you know what's happened? I almost got eaten by Simone, Atlas and Alcmene but guess what? "not giving him the chance to answer she continued. "Madame White saved me! She lives right here on this street. And gosh does she make good cookies. And guess what she has in her living room! A tree! Oh, and a parrot too! But we didn't get to meet him. His name is Quincy. And…"

Gibbs nodded, "Uh huh, but Abby…"

"And Tony started bleeding! There was blood, Gibbs, and…"

Gently but determinedly Gibbs put a hand over Abby's babbling mouth to quiet her.

"It seems like the four of you have had quite an adventure this afternoon while just taking a short stroll around the neighborhood." He said a little acidly. "I've been out looking for you for some time now."

Tony and Tim studied their shoes and then his face, unable to decide where their gazes should rest. Ziva looked him right in the eye.

"Yes, we are sorry, Gibbs. We did not plan to stay at Mrs. Tapps house for so long."

Gibbs placed Abby on the ground next to Ziva. He relaxed his grim features and allowed the kids to see he wasn't really that upset with them.

"It's alright. My guess was you had taken shelter somewhere from the rain and thunder. Just next time try not to be so long without letting us know first." He put one hand on Tony's back and the other on Tim's and started walking them all towards the house.

Casting a glance at Abby's disappointed face at his lack of interest in her story he added, "And, Abby, I know how fascinating Mrs. Tapps house can be. It's sometimes hard to leave once you've entered. Not to mention her social skills. She doesn't exactly pull away from company."

*******************NCIS**********************NCIS***********************NCIS***********************

**Tony's POV:**

Later that evening, after we were finished telling Gibbs and Jenny everything about the dogs' attack and how Mrs. Tapps had rescued us, the four of us were sitting by the fire place. Gibbs had finally agreed to light a fire because it was raining outside again. It was cozy to sit there on the floor on the sheep skin rug in front of the sparkling fire. Jenny had given each of us a stick and a bag of marshmallows to fry over the fire. I helped Abby with hers, since she wasn't big enough to fry her own that close to the fire.

Jenny had explained to Abby that she should never ever approach dogs she didn't know the way she had again. She agreed, even though she still maintained they weren't bad dogs deep down.

Gibbs and Jenny didn't understand why Abby was ranting on and on about someone called Madame White, and luckily she didn't explain herself that well either, because I didn't really feel like explaining all that to them at the moment. They did however say they knew Mrs. Tapps to be a remarkable old lady who took care of everything herself even though she was blind. No one on the street understood how she did it. But she did and wouldn't hear of having any sort of person hired to come help her out in her home. We asked them how it could be possible that Mrs. Tapps could tell time and never even stumbled over anything, but they didn't have an answer for that. They just said some people just have an amazing will and strength. And I had to say I agreed with that.

When it became time for bed we didn't object. We were all exhausted after the day's events. Who could think we'd run into a snake and two snarling beast dogs at the same day. I was planning on making tomorrow slightly less exciting. At least in the animal category.

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**Ziva's POV:**

It took a little while for Abby to fall asleep but after a while of impatient waiting she finally did. This evening I was actually tired, as opposed to the night before when I had snuck out, so I decided not to wait as long as I had then. The down side was that Gibbs and Jenny would still be up but I made sure to arrange my bed so it would seem just like I was still sleeping in it in case they decided to check on us before going to bed.

I put on a pair of pants and grabbed my suspenders that were thrown over the back of the armchair.

I opened the windows and climbed out onto the roof outside our window and went down the trellis. I landed on the soft grass with a thud and remained seated in the grass while making sure no one was around. The light was still on in the living room downstairs and the door to the porch stood wide open. I could hear Gibbs and Jenny talking in there. I would have to sneak by to get to the gate. Carefully and stealthily I trudged over to the porch and there I dropped to my stomach and continued to stay low by crawling forward.

Then I froze. I had just heard it break. It was a twig in the grass that my right elbow had somehow managed to find. I cursed in my mind as I lay there listening and waiting to see if I was to be discovered. That was when I heard footsteps out on the wooden floor above my head. I held my breath and tilted my head up. It was Jenny. She was leaning on the railing looking out over the backyard with a cup of coffee in her hand. I could smell it from my position on the ground. She stirred with the spoon in the cup making aringing sound.

"It's not that, Gibbs. But we promised each other no work this summer for the kids' sake since they're going to be staying here with us. I want them to have our full attention."

I listened, realizing I had obviously jumped into the middle of a conversation.

"I agree, Jen." I heard Gibbs say, his voice coming from over by the door out of my view. "That's what I told the Director. Don't worry, okay. Ducky is just coming over to have some tea and get my opinion on the break in at his neighbors' house."

"Yes, I heard it was a strange one."

"Yeah, you could say that. There was no sign of forced entry. No broken windows or locks, nothing broken inside the house. Somehow they managed to take the jewelry inside the safe and leave. "

Gibbs sipped his coffee.

"It sounds like they had a key."

"My thoughts too."

I heard the door squeak as Gibbs opened it and stepped inside the kitchen. I did not dare move yet, not having heard Jenny's footsteps. I glanced up and there she still was, looking like she was studying the star filled evening sky for a while. She remained a few minutes and then finally followed after Gibbs.

I did not hear her close the door all the way so I was real careful as I crawled forward, past the porch so they would not hear me moving out there on the lawn. Good thing they did not neglect cutting the grass or I might have made more involuntary sounds.

I cursed myself in my head for breaking that twig. It had been sloppy of me. Usually I was a lot stealthier than that.

When I reached the gate I was careful for it not to squeak as I opened it. I walked out into the street. I took a big breath and then exhaled for the first time since the porch. It felt good to breathe the fresh evening air. There was no breeze tonight but at least it was a bit cooler than the day time. But again, this was nothing compared to my home Israel.

I started running up Pineroad. I had been waiting impatiently all evening for the chance to sneak out and go to the pond again. There was something hiding in the bushes there. Something that intrigued me but also frightened me a little. It could not be a ghost, because I did not believe in ghosts or werewolves or anything similar. Things like that were not real. They were simply made up to scare people. No, whatever this was it was real and my curiosity would not leave me alone. I had to find out what it was. Strangely I also felt like I missed it. Like it was a friend I had not seen for a while and wanted to be reunited with. I just hoped it felt the same way or I might find myself in trouble.

I ran faster and faster and then as fast as I could. The houses, yards, lamps, fences all flew by. I was a fast runner, I knew that. But I had to admit that Tony was just a little faster than me. He had proven that at the airport. This was as good a time as any to practice so I could beat him.

When I reached the bushes that hid the stone stairs I pushed my way through until I reached the stairs leading down the hill side. I hurried down, holding onto the railing until I reached the grass down below. An owl howled from a tree nearby, making me feel at ease as I walked on. It was a beautiful evening.

As I approached the bushes where that strange noise had come from the night before, I listened closely for it. This time I heard nothing though. All was quiet except for the owl in the tree. Strange, I thought. I could have sworn these were the same bushes.

"Hello," I said in a semi quiet tone. "It is just me."

No answer.

I walked away from the bushes and over to the white painted bridge next to the pond instead. The bridge hung over a small stream leading away from the pond and into the lush area with trees and bushes. I leaned over the railing, looking down into the clear blue water below. For a moment I became curious what could be down below the bridge and contemplated finding a way down there. But it was a long way down and also rocks in the water so I decided not to do it in the dark. I climbed up on the railing and sat there swinging my legs back and forth for a while. I stopped moving my legs when I heard a man's voice call out.

"Fang! Fang come here! Fang!"

I listened to the voice. It sounded like it was coming closer. For a second I did not see why I should care. But then I remembered that it might be a neighbor who knew Gibbs and Jenny and if he saw me they might later find out I had been out here. I wanted to avoid that so they may not make it harder for me to sneak out of the house. The confrontation was actually not something I would look forward to either.

"HERE! NOW! Or I will beat you to death you miserable creature!" the voice yelled.

Now I heard footsteps on the gravel path, coming my way. I quickly looked around for a place to hide. He sounded really close now. I would not make it to the bushes without him spotting me first so instead I climbed to the outside of the bridge railing. There I climbed as far down as I could come and grabbed the board at the bottom and then felt around with my feet for a place to rest my legs underneath the bridge. I could not see under there but luckily I soon felt a board to glue my feet to while I held on with my arms. I gulped when I looked down. It looked like a hard landing if I should fall.

The man walked onto the bridge and stopped there. He wore heavy black boots and black worn down jeans and a long dark coat. I kept hoping he would continue on any second but for some reason he seemed pleased with standing there peering about in the dark. I pulled myself up a little so I could take a quick look at his face. He was wearing a hat that hid some of his face. All I could see was that he had a mustache and a slim mouth, that looked more like a line someone had drawn. He also had a little stubble.

Suddenly his boots turned their tips my direction and I dropped down again. He looked out over the pond. I prayed he would not take a look below him at the stream running there because then my goose would be cooked. Instead he chose the moment to once again bellow;

"Fang! Come here!"

I jumped and almost slipped but managed not to make a sound down there with my head so close to his boots. He remained for maybe a minute and I heard him flick a lighter. I could smell the difference between cigars and cigarettes so I knew it was a cigar he had just lit. I hoped he was not one of those people who preferred to stand still while smoking. Luckily for me he was not because the next moment he was indeed moving again, away from the bridge. I peaked up and grabbed hold of the next board to pull myself up a little higher. I could see him walking away, still yelling for Fang. I wondered what that was all about when something white all of a sudden sprang from the bushes he was walking by. It ran right past him and he yelled out a curse as it almost knocked him off his boot covered feet.

"Come back here you damned creature!" he yelled after the white streak and took off after it.

I quickly realized those were the bushes that my mystery animal had hid in last night. I knew I had to help it. That man was no white animal's friend. Hurrying to grab hold of the railing to get back up I made the mistake of not checking it was solid before relying on it to hold my entire weight. I felt it go loose and gasped as me and the railing headed backwards down again.

"Aaah!" I yelled as I felt myself topple backwards. I heard the sound of the clattering of wood hitting stone down there as parts of the railing hit the rocks. I expected myself to fall all the way down but I never hit the ground. I opened my eyes and saw that one of my suspenders had gotten caught on a plank that was sticking out and I was dangling below the bridge. The small stream below was rippling.

"Oh no. This is not good," I told myself as I struggled to focus on finding a way out of my situation and not feel the fear I felt was on its way. I raised my arms above my head and felt around for something to grab. I found a wooden edge and tried to pull myself up. I pulled with all my strength but without anything to put my feet against I could not do it. I needed the strength in my legs because using only my arms I was not strong enough. I remained hanging in the air, helpless, while frantically trying to figure out a plan.

"At least things cannot get any worse now," I said to myself in the dark. Glancing down I saw the moon reflected in the water and somewhere a cricket was playing. Interrupting the beautiful song of the cricket was the sound of the plank creaking.

"Oh, no, no, no, please do not break," I begged it and tried not to kick my legs and give it cause to snap even faster. I decided I had to give pulling myself up another try if I did not want to fall all the way down and break my neck. I was usually not afraid of heights, but that was when I had control, this time I did not.

Suddenly my body jerked a little as I felt someone tug on my suspender. I looked up and looked straight into two big, gentle brown eyes surrounded by fur as white as snow. It was a dog and it had my suspender in its mouth. It had its head stuck out between two bars that still remained below the fallen railing.

"Shalom…I mean uh, hello," I spoke nervously at being at the mercy of the animal with the gentle brown eyes above my head. "What are you…oh," I realized," You are trying to pull me up. To help me."

Careful not to poke the dog in one of its eyes I reached my hands up and grabbed that edge again and put all my strength into pulling myself up, with the help of my savior. The dog gave a little whine with my suspender in its mouth.

"Yes, I know. I am trying to."

The dog was not strong enough to pull me all the way up, but it was strong enough to raise me up so much that I could grab the edge to the floor of the bridge and get one knee up there. It continued to pull until we had managed to get me all the way up and I lay there exhausted and panting.

"Wow, that was close," I panted all winded while feeling like I had just run a marathon. My head rested against the floor of the bridge and my arms were at my sides while I stared at the sky. I felt something wet touch my arm and turned my head to see the white furred dog licking my arm.

"You saved me," I said and met its stare. "Thank you."

The dog remained silent and seated as it watched me. I sat up slowly with my legs stretched out in front of me. "Who are you?" I asked and glanced in the direction the man had run in. "Yes, that is right. You must have belonged to him."

The dog whined a little and licked one of its paws. It sure was a beautiful dog with its white sparkling fur and eyes so brown. I could easily tell she was a girl just by looking at her. I did not know exactly how I knew, I just knew. She resembled a wolf only the ears were not as pointy as the ears of a wolf. They were more like a teddy bear's ears. She had a dark nose and wavy, long tail.

"I cannot believe anyone would want to hurt you. You are so beautiful."

I reached out my hand to stroke her fur but to my surprise she jerked back with a whine. I pulled my hand back and sat down on my knees instead.

"What is it? Are you afraid to be touched?"

The dog listened intently to my words and cocked her head to the side. She lay down and rested her head on the floor.

"You _are_ afraid," I concluded. "I guess that man has not been so nice to you, huh?"

The dog whined again and licked her paw. That was when I saw blood in the fur on her paw.

"Oh no, you are injured."

Carefully I began to scoot over to her to examine her paw. I was not sure she would let me but I did not think she would bite me. Looking into her gentle brown eyes I could not imagine her suddenly turning to attack me. Especially not after she had rescued me the way that she did. I paused in my movement now and then and just sat, gazing out over the pond with her, and then I started to move towards her again. She looked a bit skeptical at times but she remained where she was. Before I knew it I was sitting next to her. I moved my hand up to pat her head. She flinched and instead I rested it on the floor next to her paw. She was looking at my hand but then looked at me and again gave a soft whine. That was when I moved my hand up to her head and patted her. This time she did not flinch, she just closed her eyes and tilted her head towards me.

"Good girl… that's it. I will not hurt you, you know. I am not that man," I assured her as I gently patted her head and stroked her fur all the way from her head down her fluffy back to her tail.

"May I look at your paw now?" I asked and was surprisingly rewarded with a wet lick on my cheek. "Hey!" I exclaimed. "No, what are you doing?" I laughed as she showered me with licks all over my face as she saw I started laughing. I giggled and tried to turn away from her, but she jumped to the other side and continued anyway. When she finally stopped she lay down next to me and rested her head in my lap.

"Wow," I whispered. "You are so affectionate."

I picked up her paw in my hand and separated the fur some with my fingers. I could see she had cut herself there. Probably on a nail on the bridge. It was not deep though and I could easily fix her up myself by cleaning it and adding a bandage. Realizing I would need to get her back to the little house up on Pineroad I got to my feet. She did the same and stood at my side.

"Come on, let's go."

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**To be continued. Please send a review.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Title: Once Upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 21**

**A team**

Gibbs and Jenny were seated at the kitchen table, sipping their morning coffee when Tim, Tony and Abby pulled out their chairs.

"Good morning," Jenny said. "Everything is on the table so just help yourselves."

"Thanks," said Tony and grabbed two scones and the butter.

"Can I have the butter when you're done, Tony?" Tim asked and filled up his glass with orange juice.

"Yup."

Jenny helped Abby with her scones.

"Don't you want pigtails today, Abby?" Jenny asked and brushed a hand through the girl's hair.

"No, I want one braid." she said determinedly.

Gibbs grinned and turned the page in the newspaper.

Jenny handed Abby her breakfast.

"Oh ok. I'll make it for you when we've finished breakfast. We don't want hair in your food now, do we?"

Abby shook her head.

Gibbs put the paper down.

"Where is Ziva this morning, Abby?"

"I don't know, Gibbs. She wasn't in our room when I woke up."

Gibbs frowned and pushed his chair back. Passing her he put a hand on Jenny's shoulder.

"I'll be right back."

He walked out the door and onto the porch.

"Hey, Ziva, you out here?"

When he didn't get an answer he crossed the lawn over to the tree house and climbed up the ladder. She wasn't there.

"Where is that girl?" he muttered to himself as he climbed down again.

He took an extra look around and checked all the bushes before heading inside again.

"Was she out there?" Jenny asked as he took his seat at the table again.

"Nope, couldn't find her. Don't worry. She'll turn up soon."

Jenny crossed her arms over her chest.

"Turn up, Jethro? We don't even know where she is. Perhaps we should worry a little when a girl we're responsible for disa…"

They heard the front door slam shut and foot steps towards the kitchen and then Ziva appeared. She was dressed in a white sundress and tennis shoes.

They all looked up as she entered. Jenny was the first one who spoke.

"Where have you been? We've been worried."

Ziva pulled out a chair and sat down. "About what?"

Jenny sighed.

"About you. Now, I would like you to answer my question. Where were you?"

Tim, Tony and Abby were all silent. It seemed like this was a time when Jenny could get a little moody if not answered.

Ziva shrugged and stared back at her.

"I was just outside in the tree house. I did not think you would mind."

Gibbs looked up from his second attempt at reading the newspaper.

"You were in the tree house?" he asked.

"Yes," Ziva answered.

Gibbs raised an eye brow incredulously. "Uh huh,"

"What do you mean _uh huh_?" Ziva asked slightly exasperated now.

Gibbs just looked calmly at the girl, showing no emotion.

"Sit down and have some breakfast now, Ziva," he said gesturing at the table.

With a huff Ziva dropped into her seat.

"I cannot go out to the tree house now?" Ziva asked, directing her question at Jenny who put a new pot of coffee on the table. Jenny who had visibly calmed down by now after getting an answer answered her.

"Of course you can, sweetie. We were just worried because no one had seen you this morning that's all."

Ziva seemed satisfied with that answer and grabbed some scones of her own and started to put marmalade on them.

* * *

**Ziva's POV:**

"I cannot take you back to the pond you know. That horrible man could come back and catch you. And there is no telling what he might do to you if he does."

I glanced at the pine panel walls surrounding me and the dog sitting on the floor inside Gibbs work shed. The sun entered through the window and made me have to shade my eyes with my hand when looking up. Gently I stroked the dog's soft head as she rested her head in my lap. I fingered the bandage on the dog's paw.

The night before I had snuck the dog through the gate and into the backyard. But while there I had had no idea where to hide her. I could not bring her into our bedroom and hide her there because then Abby would have noticed and Gibbs and Jenny could have found out. I had thought of the tree house and even given it a try to climb up there with the dog in my arms but had not even been able to lift the dog successfully by myself. Even though I was strong I was not strong enough to lift the dog and carry her all by myself. Then I had thought of the only option I had, Gibbs work shed, and despite knowing it was forbidden for us kids to enter without him I had opened the unlocked door and hurried inside followed by the dog.

"I'll be in big trouble if Gibbs finds us in here. But I do not care as long as you are safe from that man."

The dog licked my knee affectionately in response. She seemed content with being in there and had not barked once since I had left her in there during the night.

She whined a little as I shifted position on the floor and pulled my knees up and hugged them to my chest. She sat up and looked at me with her big hazel eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I have to leave you now," I said and patted her head. "Do not worry though. I will keep Gibbs busy all day long so that he will not come in here and find you. "

I put my hand before her, palm up, and she raised her paw and shook my hand. "It is a promise."

* * *

"Ice cream bar in town? Right now?" Gibbs asked a bit confused at her sudden demand…or request because he wasn't exactly sure which one it was.

"Yes, Gibbs. I want to visit one. Please, please let's go. " Ziva said and pulled at his hand in the direction away from his work shed which he was heading to.

"Ziva, I was just about to go work on my…"

"Oh you can do that any time, can you not?" she pleaded with big eyes. "Pleeease, Gibbs, I have always wanted to see a real American ice cream bar," She said using a tone as sweet as candy.

Gibbs was quiet a moment, watching her pulling his arm, trying to make him move. It was good that she actually wanted to do something for a change, instead of just taking off on her own, but this sudden change of attitude confounded him some.

When he felt her pull even harder in determination he finally gave in.

"Okay okay, you win, we'll go." Gibbs waved at Abby and Tim over by the swing. "Hey you two! We're going for ice cream. Get Tony. Leaving in three minutes."

The two youngest kids' eyes lit up at hearing the word ice cream. Abby gave a little squeal of joy and jumped off the swing. She ran over to the tree house and called up to Tony that they were going for ice cream. Tony must have been overjoyed as well judging by the short time it took him to reach the ground.

* * *

**Tim's POV:**

"FIVE scoops of chocolate? Really Abby?" Tony asked astonished at the small girl's decision on ice cream.

Abby nodded and balanced on her toes to see the flavors inside the ice cream counter.

"I can't see the rest," she complained as she craned her neck in effort.

Gibbs put a hand on her shoulder and eased her down from her toes. "Oh, I think three will be quite enough anyway Abby. We don't want you to get a stomach ache."

"Oh, oookay, Gibbs. But I still only want chocolate." She said stubbornly with her arms crossed.

"Tim, you're next," Gibbs said.

I made my way past Tony who looked a little huffed at not getting to choose before me. I craned my neck a little, not wanting to admit in front of Tony that I actually couldn't see the flavors in the back row either. I was older than Abby. One whole year older but actually not that much taller. Perhaps only two inches taller than her. Suddenly I felt two hands grab my waist and hoist me up.

"There you go, Tim," Gibbs said with a grin. "Take your time."

I heard Tony snicker down there on the ground and bit my lip, trying not to care about that, but then I heard Gibbs clear his throat and when I turned my head I saw Tony cringe a little. All of a sudden I felt a little better.

**Back at the little house on Pineroad:**

"Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs!"

Gibbs gave a little discrete sigh and stopped on his way to his work shed. He turned towards the porch where Ziva stood.

"Yes?"

"Jenny needs your help in the kitchen. Uh, you know, with the lunch…stuff."

"Lunch stuff?" Gibbs raised a brow at the girl.

"Yes, I already told you."

She waved at him to come inside and stayed in her spot until he had walked the entire way back to her. He put a hand on her head and tousled her hair a little as he walked past her through the door to the porch and into the kitchen.

"Jen, did you need me for something in here?" he asked.

Again he raised a brow at the scene before him. Jenny looked up from the stove and gave him a questioning look. Tony, and Tim were cutting vegetables and Abby was setting the table.

"I'm not sure what that would be at this point, Jethro," she replied calmly with a humorous smile. "But it's nice of you to ask."

Gibbs grunted a little and turned and gave a little glare at Ziva who was standing at the door.

She shrugged her shoulders unaware.

"I thought you looked so busy, Jenny, and that you probably needed Gibbs' help. Perhaps I was mistaken."

Gibbs nodded slowly.

"Uh huh, perhaps you were."

He studied her suspiciously a few seconds but to his surprise she didn't budge under his stare. Instead she spoke up.

"But while you're in here, Gibbs, could you help me with something? I really want help moving the cedar chest at the foot of my bed to Abby's instead."

Gibbs didn't bother asking any questions. He just followed the girl up to the room she shared with Abby and helped her move the heavy cedar chest. He figured he could get some work done as soon as he was finished up there but right when they were headed down the stairs again Jenny called that it was time to eat.

The mushroom soup tasted great but afterwards there was no escape doing the dishes. Gibbs and Ziva were the only two who hadn't helped with the cooking so Ziva chose that precise moment to politely suggest they handle the dishes.

"If that is all right with you of course, Gibbs?" she added with a sweet smile.

Gibbs eyed the girl with slightly narrowed eyes, then reached for an apron to put on to avoid getting dish water all over himself.

"I wash, you dry," he replied, a bit disgruntled.

* * *

**Ziva's POV:**

I was sitting on the steps to the porch, resting my chin in my hands. Suddenly I felt someone block my sun light and when I looked up I saw Tony. Great, I thought. Just great. Like it was not enough to put all my energy into keeping Gibbs from his work shed, I now had to deal with Tony as well.

"What'r you up to?"

He took a seat next to me and pulled a long blade of grass up by its root and started to twirl it around his left index finger.

I sighed deeply.

"Up to? I do not know what you mean."

"I'm pretty sure you do." He continued. "You won't give Gibbs a second's peace today."

I glared at him, feeling annoyed that he had to stick his nose where it did not belong.

"It is none of your business, Tony. Now, please leave me alone."

I stood up and was ready to leave when he grabbed the hem of my white sundress to keep me in place a moment longer.

"If something's up maybe I can help," he suggested.

Angrily I pulled the hem of my dress from his hand and took a leap down the rest of the steps and landed with a thud on the grass.

"I do not need your help. I do not even know if I can trust you, Tony."

I stalked off towards the tree house without looking back.

All afternoon I kept myself overly busy trying to keep Gibbs from the work shed where I had hid my dog. _My_ dog. That was exactly the way I viewed her now. I was so scared that he would find her and send her away somewhere…or maybe even toss her out on the street again. Then that man was sure to get hold of her.

It was getting close to dinner time and I had just managed to this time con Abby into talking Gibbs into playing hide and seek with her. It was hard to say no to Abby's pout, I had learned that. So, I figured it was best to get Abby to keep Gibbs busy for an hour or so. Tony and Tim had joined in as well but I stayed up in the tree house where I could keep an eye on the back yard and the shed. Jenny was at the kitchen table thumbing through a heap of papers, looking busy. I could see her from my hidden spot by moving a few leaves aside with my hand. I could never figure out why grown -ups always paid so much attention to papers and shuffling them around. I mean, what was the point with that?

Anyway, _I_ at least knew I had something more important to do. I needed to save a life. The life of an animal who had saved mine first. I owed her. And I never forgot about a debt I owed to anyone. NEVER.

Scanning the area first and making sure no one was around, I climbed down the ladder. I shoved the tree branches aside and emerged from behind all the leaves. I looked to the right and to the left but did not see anyone so I took off, at the speed of lightning, towards the work shed. There I flung the door open and ran inside, quickly shut the door behind me.

The dog sat up right away and this time even waved her fluffy white tail at seeing me.

"Shalom," I greeted her with a smile and fell to my knees on the floor, letting her come to me. When she reached me I put my arms around her neck and hugged her.

"I am glad you are here," I told her in confidence. "I have spent the day keeping Gibbs away but I am soon out of ideas as how to keep him away. I am going to somehow have to move you out of here tonight."

The door opened and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I spun around and saw Abby standing, one hand on the door handle, looking at me with her mouth open and Philip tucked under her left arm. Next I knew I heard someone running outside on the lawn, coming our way.

"Abby, what are you doing? You have to hide before Gibbs comes looking…"

Before I had time to react Tony was standing behind Abby gawking at me.

"Ziva, what the…"

"A dog!" Abby suddenly exclaimed as realization washed over her.

Quickly I got to my feet and was by the door in a second.

"Get inside both of you and hurry!" I spat out with clenched teeth, nudging Abby inside and yanking Tony in by the front of his shirt. "What are you doing sneaking around?"

"I wasn't sneaking, "Abby protested. "We are playing hide and seek and Gibbs is seeking."

I threw my hands in the air in exasperation, "Just great!"

Tony cleared his throat.

"Uh, Ziva? What are you doing with that beast there?"

I straightened to my full height and pinned him with a steady gaze.

"This, here, is NOT a beast, Tony. And you really should not assume things about others just because you do not have all the, or in this case any of the, facts." I said with my arms crossed over my chest.

"Well, whatever then. But what are you doing with it?"

"None of your business, Tony DiNozzo and I will tell you…"

Abby's sudden laughter cut me off mid sentence and Tony and I both turned to see the dog happily licking the younger girl's face. Abby was sitting on the floor facing the dog and had her hand on the dog's head, right between her ears.

I could not help but grin at the sight. But then I remembered the dilemma I was in here and sighed in defeat.

"All right," I said with resignation, "I found the dog down by the pond the other night when I was out exploring the neighborhood." I admitted, thinking there was little point in trying to hide details now anyway. Too much had already been revealed.

Abby stopped patting the dog. "You were outside by yourself?" she asked incredulous.

"Yes."

"At night? When it's a dark?"

"It is traditionally dark at night, yes, Abby."

"But Ziva that's dangerous," she protested. "You could get lost and…and…Madame Black could get you and…"

Tony held up a hand and took a step forward. "Never mind that now, Abby," he said, "So you found a dog, Ziva. But why the heck did you bring it here?"

"She was hurt." I said indicating her inured paw with the bandage on it. " Also a man was after her. I think he hurts her because she was hiding from him. Also, anyone who saw that man would agree with me. He seems horrible. "

Abby got to her feet and started for the closed door.

"We have to show Gibbs and Jenny the dog, they'll be soo excited…"

"NO Abby!" I yelled, and then clamped a hand over my own mouth, remembering who was out there. "We cannot tell them. They will send her away and that man will get her again. I cannot let that happen. I will not."

I sat down and called the dog to me. She immediately went to my side and leaned her head against my hip.

"I promised her I would take care of her."

"That's gonna be a bit difficult to do, you know," Tony said, looking out the window over the back yard. "Gibbs and Jenny probably aren't gonna let you keep her. They'll insist on finding the real owner. Or maybe they'll believe you when you tell them that he's dangerous but then they might send her to some shelter instead where she'll wait for someone who will want her or….be put down."

"What do you mean _put down_?" I asked with a frown."Where will they put her?"

"They won't put her anywhere, Ziva. They will kill her."

I just stared at him in horror.

"But that's not for sure, of course." he added like he did not want to alarm me," Like I said, maybe someone would come and give her a nice home…"

"But maybe Gibbs and Jenny want a dog." Abby said, hopeful.

Tony shook his head. "No, I don't think so, Abby."

"Why not?"

"Because if they did, Abbs, then they would already have one. I mean they are capable of getting their own."

I nodded.

"Yes, you are right," I said, sagging my shoulders. "But I cannot just leave her. I need time to think. But I do not have time because soon Gibbs will find her here."

Tony stared at the dog, lost in thought. "I don't see how we can help her…" his voice trailed off as the dog suddenly went over to him and nuzzled close to his leg and gave a little sad whine. It was as if she was pleading for us to figure something out.

Tony looked at the dog in surprise.

"Oh no you don't. You can't con me with your soft fur and gentle sad eyes. I'm not _her_ you know." He said with his head held high and pointed a finger at me.

Abby started to giggle at the sight when the dog lay down right on top of Tony's feet and started licking his legs.

I could not help but giggle too.

"Oh, all right then," Tony said resigned to his fate. "Maybe we can pull it off if we all help."

He looked at me as if searching for my ok in the matter of working together. I knew why he did that and felt a little bad about what I had said earlier on the porch steps. This time I offered him a little smile instead.

"Agreed," I said. "We are a team."

Abby nodded, agreeing.

"We'll need to move her out of here before the big man comes along," Tony said. "He must be wondering where we are about now. We agreed to only hide inside the house or outside or in the back yard." He stole another glance out the window. "He's not out there so he must be inside the house."

Ziva crouched down next to the dog.

"Then we must get him and Jenny out of the house," I said and stroked the dog's furry back.

Tony frowned. "Why?"

"Because the only other place we have to hide her in is inside the house. And they certainly cannot be inside it when we do it."

Abby stood on her toes, trying to see out the window. When she could not she instead reached for a screw driver lying on Gibbs' work bench. Tony quietly took it from her hand with a shake of his head.

"Hey," Abby whispered a little disappointed at not getting to examine the tool.

"We need a distraction. Something that will distract Gibbs while we sneak the dog into the house," I said and scrunched my eyes trying to figure something out.

"I think I can provide the distraction for Gibbs," Tony scratched his chin. "But you two have to take care of the dog and get her up to your room."

"Agreed," I said. "But what are you going to do?"

* * *

**Tony's POV**

**Ten minutes later by the tree house.**

"I told you this was a bad idea, Tony." Timmy complained while desperately hugging the opening to the tree house he was up in.

I looked around and saw Ziva signal from the work shed that she and the dog were ready. I took a deep breath and called out Gibbs name as loud as I could. It didn't take more than a few seconds for him to come running across the lawn.

With worry written on his face Gibbs ran towards us, his silver hair almost shimmering in the sun light. He came to a stop in front of me.

"Timmy is stuck in the tree house, Gibbs!" I said with distress in my voice. "I can't get him down. "

Gibbs pushed the branches aside and went over to the ladder. He looked up the tall tree at little Tim sitting up there refusing to even look down the ladder which he had only a few minutes earlier used to climb up there.

"I thought you didn't like the tree house, Tim?"

Gibbs put one foot up on the first step of the ladder and grabbed its sides ready to climb up after him.

"But I don't," Tim said in a small voice which sounded terrified, even for him.

"Then why did you?"

"He wanted to see the view from up there, Gibbs." I told him with a convincing nod of my head.

"Yeah, after you told me I should," Tim piped with eyes shut tight and clung even harder to the opening.

Gibbs gave me a disapproving look from half way up the ladder. He then climbed all the way up and took a seat next to Tim in the opening, resting his feet on the top step of the ladder.

"Hi,"

"Hi, Gibbs," Tim answered with a slight tremble in his voice.

"You can open your eyes now, Tim," Gibbs patted his back gently and Tim slowly and hesitantly opened his eyes. "You won't fall."

"How do you know that?" he asked, his bottom lip sticking out the way it sometimes did.

Gibbs gave a little grin.

"Because I'm sitting next to you. And I won't let you fall."

After some thinking Tim finally agreed with a quick nod of his head and opened his eyes.

Just like I had hoped Gibbs got Tim to his feet and then spent the next ten minutes up there in the tree house. He got him to walk around and take looks out the windows and reach for the branches. Probably to make Tim confident up there. It worked too. Soon Tim was talking about how nice it was up there and that it was like a real home, inside a real house, only smaller…and in a tree of course.

Finally Gibbs helped Tim all the way down, until he was safely on the ground again, standing next to me with a big grin on his face.

"Did you see it, Tony? Me up there I mean. It was great. And I could see so far too!"

"Yeah, Tim. You were great. And now you know that heights aren't really that bad, right?" I asked, feeling a little guilty about luring him up there for the sake of our plan.

Tim turned and looked up the ladder again and a more solemn expression placed itself on his face.

"Well, I did like it up there. But I don't think I could climb up and down all by myself yet."

Gibbs stepped over and put a hand on his head.

"You don't have to worry about that, Tim. I'll give you a hand when you want to go up there."

Tim smiled.

"Thank you, Gibbs. I gotta go tell Abby I was up in the tree house."

Excitedly he ran off to find Abby and left me alone with Gibbs. I cast a worried glance up at him and seeing his expression I quickly turned and tried to follow Tim.

"I think I'll help him look for Abby."

"Tony."

Gibbs voice made me stop and turn again.

"Mm."

"Did you just trick Tim into climbing that ladder?"

His question caught me off guard. I hadn't thought he would be able to see right through me to the truth like that. I mentally kicked myself for feeling guilty, guessing that must have been why he had seen right through my trick the way he had.

Meeting Gibbs' steady gaze I opened my mouth and tried to lie. But something made me stop. A sudden ache in my stomach that struck like thunder the moment I tried to come up with something untrue to tell him.

I liked Gibbs. Unlike most grownups I had met he was honest not to mention nice to all of us. In that split second I made a choice. I realized I just couldn't lie to Gibbs.

I took a breath and looked up at him again.

"Yeah, I guess you could sort of, in a way, maybe say I did."

Gibbs closed the distance between us and led me over to the ladder where he took a seat on one of the steps. Not wanting to talk and have to face him the entire time I dropped to the ground and rested my back against the tree.

"Why?"

Staring forward I tried to come up with an answer that wouldn't be a lie and wouldn't be the truth either. Deciding that was impossible I instead shrugged.

"I'm going to need more than just a shrug, Tony. Why did you trick, Tim?"

"I can't tell you," I whispered.

Gibbs was quiet a long moment before speaking again. I held my breath.

"Well, I appreciate you're not lying to me."

I exhaled so loudly I was sure they must have heard me inside the house.

"But I still don't understand why you won't just tell me why."

I could feel Gibbs eyeing me curiously or perhaps suspiciously. I wasn't sure which at the moment. At least he didn't sound mad.

"I'm sorry, Gibbs." I said in a slightly louder voice than before. "But I can't tell you."

Gibbs spread his hands, palms up. "Fair enough. At least you were honest. But you will apologize to Tim and I don't want to see it happening again. Do we have a deal?"

I nodded and raised my chin a little. "Yes."

"And Tony,"

I looked up at him now standing above me, looking down at me.

"Sooner or later…I will find out what's going on."

* * *

**Ziva's POV:**

There was a knock at the door and as Abby called out "come in," Tony opened the door, only enough so that he could slip in, and then closed it behind him, quietly. He turned and saw me and Abby sitting on my bed and a fluffy white tail sticking out from under the bed.

"How'd it go?"

I could still feel my heart beating quickly in my chest from Abby and I maneuvering the dog upstairs to our room.

"It almost did not go at all, because of Jenny suddenly deciding to clean the living room," I told him.

Abby nodded, "But I distracted her so Ziva could get by her." she beamed proudly.

Tony let out a sigh of relief.

"Good. I got caught actually."

Ziva flew to her feet.

"What? You mean Gibbs knows?"

Tony held up a hand and padded across the room to our side.

"No no, relax. He doesn't know. He figured out I had tricked Tim up that ladder to the tree house is all. But he doesn't know _why_ I did it."

I exhaled and slumped down on the bed again. It had been quite the accomplishment getting the dog past Jenny. We had hoped to get her inside through the front door and up the stairs while Jenny was in the kitchen. The problem was that you could still see the passage between the hall and the stairs from the kitchen table so we had hoped to do it when her back was turned and she was focusing on something else. But when we were on the porch to the front door, ready to bring the dog inside we suddenly realized Jenny was not in the kitchen anymore. She had started to clean the hall instead, and we could hear her humming as she was mopping the floor right inside the door. Desperately I tried to think of something but did not have to think for long before Abby started wailing and when I turned around she was on the stair, pretending to have fallen and hurt her knee.

I hurried around the corner with the dog loyally following behind me and listened to Jenny cowing and telling Abby she was going to be all right and that there was not even any blood, but that she was going to put on a plaster anyway. She certainly was a nice woman that Jenny. Only nice people put on plasters when there was no blood, because they knew kids always felt better when that plaster was on. I was of course too big for plasters to help that way but I remembered when I felt the same way.

It was not until Abby came into our room that I realized she actually had not faked it at all. She had tripped for real on the steps and hurt her knee. But I chose to call it a cleaver diversion anyway, to make her happy. And it had after all saved the day.

"Was he mad?" Abby asked, worriedly.

Tony looked pensive.

"Nah, I wouldn't call it mad exactly," He said confidently. "But I guess he wasn't happy about it either. And he did say he was going to find out what's going on sooner or later."

I nodded.

"I believe he will. That is what worries me. I have to find a way to keep her," I glanced at the dog whose furry head was now sticking out from under the bed, with something that looked like a big happy smile on her face. " without Gibbs or Jenny finding out."

"_We _have to find a way, remember Ziva." Tony reminded me.

I leaned forward and rested by elbows on my thighs.

"You two sure you want to get involved. I mean, we might get caught. It _is_ risky."

Abby pushed her shoulders back a little and tried to confidently throw her one braid over her shoulder, like I sometimes did, but it was too short and only ended up bouncing back to rest on her neck and upper back.

"Of course we'll help, Ziva. I want you to keep her," She said and patted the bed, meaning the dog hidden underneath.

I looked at Tony who just shrugged.

"We're already involved, Ziva," He said indifferently. "And besides, we're in this together now."

That was when Abby reminded us of something.

"What about Tim?" she asked with a small gasp. "Poor him, he doesn't even know about the dog…or why Tony tricked him up to the tree house." Her brow furrowed. "That isn't fair. He should get to know the secret, like us."

I thought on it for a moment. Abby was in a way right. It did not seem fair to leave Tim out. Perhaps he would feel sad and left out and I did not want that.

"You are right, Abby. We will tell him." I turned to the only one of us who had not yet agreed on that with a raised eyebrow. "Right, Tony?"

"Sure, I agree with that. I mean, the little guy certainly isn't very bright on all occasions but he should know."

We all agreed to tell Tim on the right occasion.

* * *

**To be continued**

**A/N: So, this became a longer chapter than I had at first planned. Please let me know what you think. **


	22. Chapter 22

**Title: Once upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing the characters for the story.**

**A/N: Hello everyone. I hope you're having a wonderful spring with nice spring weather. At least I am. Happily the nice weather is making it easier for me to sit down and write. So I'm actually getting more writing done for this story now than before when it was just raining. The next chapter is almost finished. Please let me know what you think of this chapter 22.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 22**

**A visit in the dark**

**Tim's POV:**

Gibbs started a fire in the fireplace that evening. And we all got to stay up until eleven. Ziva, Tony and Abby and me sat on the floor in front of the fireplace, as close as we could. Ziva and Abby were settled on the soft sheep skin sprawled on the floor and Jenny had taken a seat in the rocking chair next to us. Gibbs had taken possession of the leather arm chair facing the fire.

Abby asked Jenny to read to us from her book of classic fairy tales. She had brought the book from home and said it was one of her favorites. Jenny read Cinderella to us and showed us the pictures after every page. It was cozy sitting there listening to her read and feeling the warmth of the fire on our faces and bare arms and legs. The fire crackled and popped and once in a while I saw Abby scoot back a little when the fire made a particularly loud sound that made her jump.

After brushing our teeth and drinking one final glass of water and visiting the bathroom one last time we were all in bed by eleven thirty. Tony must have been tired because he had only tried talking Gibbs out of making us go to bed one single time tonight. I thought that was strange. I tried asking him about all the food I saw him hide in his napkin at dinner. He wasn't usually shy when it came to asking for more if he wanted more so I didn't understand why he hid it and brought it with him upstairs afterwards. I could see that Ziva and Abby noticed what he was doing too. But they kept Gibbs and Jenny busy answering their questions about all sorts of things instead. Tony was definitely lucky that Jenny had decided to put on a really long table cloth just before dinner.

I raised my head a little and glanced at Tony in his bed. Maybe he was extra tired after eating all that beef. I on the other hand didn't feel so tired at first. But when I finally closed my eyes I felt myself drift asleep anyway.

* * *

**03.20 a.m**

**Ziva's POV:**

I felt chilly air coming from the open window and it was making my legs cold. I felt around with my hand for the covers. Unable to find them right away I woke up enough to crack one eye open. With my one open eye I saw that the door to our room was slightly open. At first I did not think much about it. I was too tired from getting so little sleep the night before when I had been down by the pond. Drowsily I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes. My eyelids were so heavy and I really just wanted to go back to sleep but I could not wipe the thought from my mind that there was a certain important reason why that door should be closed. I thought on it some more but the reason did not seem to want to come to me so I lay back down again and rested my tired head on the soft pillow.

Then my eyes shot back open and I practically flew to sitting position again, like there had been a cactus underneath my back. The door! The dog! I thought. The door was supposed to be shut to keep the dog from wandering out. It had been difficult enough to say good night to Jenny outside our room and keep her from entering at risk of finding the dog, and now she might have gone outside and exposed us already.

My knees touched the floor and I peeked under the bed to see if she was there but she was not. I got back up and ran to the door and out into the corridor to quickly get hold of her. I was about to head for the stairs when I saw the door to the boys' room open. I pushed the door open all the way as quietly as I could so I would not wake them and the sight I saw made my heart skip a beat. The dog lay in Tim's bed and had snuggled up close to his upper body and slept peacefully. What surprised me even more was that Tim did not seem to have noticed her there. Instead he had sleepily draped an arm around her furry body and his head was resting right next to hers.

I took one step inside and a floor board creaked. Right away the dog woke up and raised her head, looking at me like she had been expecting me for quite some time now. I snapped my fingers and whispered, "Come here. Please come here now."

If Tim woke up and yelled we would be in hot waters. I again snapped my fingers and called to her to come over to me but she seemed to like the place in Tim's bed better than the floor underneath my bed. And of course who would not. I padded over to Tim's bed and stood over it with my hands on my hips.

"Come on, we have to go," I whispered. "Before he wakes up."

I wished she would have had a collar I could grab to get her to move but of course she did not have one so I had to find another way.

Carefully I took hold of Tim's arm and lifted it off the dog and let it rest at his side instead. I exhaled when I put it down, thanking my lucky star the movement had not woken him up. We did intend to tell him about the dog the next morning when we had a better moment after breakfast, but I did not think letting him find out this way would be a good thing at all.

The dog pushed herself up slightly and cocked her head to the side and looked at me like she was wondering why I was bothering her at this hour. I myself was so tired that what I really wanted was to crawl in the warm looking bed next to them both and go back to the land of dreams I had been in. Pushing that thought out of my mind I focused on getting the dog to a sitting position so she could then jump out of the bed.

Suddenly Tony moaned over in his bed, like he was having a bad dream. I gasped as the dog spun around in the bed too see where the distressed sound had come from and managed to knock down the glass of water on Tim's nightstand with her tail. It landed on the floor with a crash and Tim's eyes shot wide open. He was looking straight into a giant world of white fur since the dog's butt was right above his face. I could see his eyes grow even wider with panic and surprise and I lounged forward, jumping into his bed, and covered his mouth with my hand before he could scream. I shushed him and put a finger over my lips and tried to look firm.

"Do not make a sound, Tim. Everything is all right, okay?"

Probably still feeling panic not to mention confusion Tim just shook his head.

"It is just me here…and a friend."

That was when Tony sat up in his bed and looked at us.

"What are you doing?" he whispered agitated, looking at me and the dog sitting in Tim's bed with her tongue hanging out, looking like she was smiling. "You want Gibbs or Jen in here or what?"

"If _you _do not want them in here, Tony, then get out of your bed and help me here," I snapped. Tim had begun to try to get my hand out of the way and the dog now seemed interested in licking his bare feet sticking out from underneath the covers.

Tony did get out of bed and grabbed the dog. Quickly he took her gently but firmly by the neck and ran with her straight to Abby's and my room.

"Quickly! They'll be here any second," Tony hissed to me. "Under my bed, hurry."

Getting the message now I let go of Tim, letting Tony take over, and slid under Tony's bed. From under there I heard Tony talking to Tim.

"I'm gonna remove my hand now but you'd better not yell. The dog is gone so you have no reason to, okay?"

"D..d…dog?"I heard Tim stammer in a small voice.

"Yes, dog. Ziva found a dog the other night and that's what we've been hiding from Gibbs and Jenny all day. Now when Gibbs and Jen show up you have to…"

He did not get to finish that sentence before footsteps were heard. They were definitely coming our way and fast too, increasing in their loudness until the door opened and Gibbs and Jen appeared. I could not see them, except for their feet, from my hidden position in the dark underneath Tony's bed. Then the room filled with the bright light from the lamp in the ceiling.

"What's going on here?" I heard Jen say in a worried voice. "We heard a noise. Tony, what are you doing out of bed and Tim…oh your face is white as a sheet, honey."

Jenny's bare feet and Gibbs slipper wearing feet moved past Tony's bed and over to Tim's and then I could see Gibbs knees too as he knelt by the bed.

"We're sorry the noise woke you," Tony said apologetically.

"That's alright but what happened? Tim, did you have a bad dream?"

"Uh, I'm not sure. The glass fell over and…it doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't make any sense, Tim?" Gibbs asked.

"Uh…everything."

Gibbs and Jenny kept talking to Tim, trying to make some sense of what he was saying but finally, after a lot of rambling and eventually yawning they told the boys to go back to sleep. Tony's bed squeaked when he fell into it and soon the room was covered in darkness again as Gibbs turned out the light and closed the door behind them with a final "good night".

I waited until I heard the door to Gibbs' and Jen's bedroom close before starting to crawl out from under there.

Tony was sitting up in his bed and Tim was leaning against the headboard of his bed with his knees pulled up close to his chest and a small pout on his face.

"Nicely handled, Tim." Tony complemented him.

"What do you mean 'handled'? I didn't handle anything. I don't understand anything." He turned to me."Why didn't you tell _me_ about the dog? You told Tony and Abby…but not me. Why not?"

One look at his face told how hurt he was and I felt my stomach tense. It had not been our intention to hurt him. We had intended to tell him about the dog in the morning.

I crossed the room and took a seat on the side of Tim's bed. He looked down at his toes and scratched a mosquito bite on his big toe.

"I am sorry, Tim. I did not mean…nor did Tony or Abby, to leave you out of what was happening. It just happened so fast and we did not get a chance to talk to you about it alone tonight. We did however intend to tell you tomorrow. We did not mean to hurt your feelings."

He glanced up at me but then quickly turned away again.

"You're bigger than me. And you think I'm little. You probably didn't want me along that's all," He said with another pout and a frown.

"That is not true. Besides, Abby is little and we wanted her. We wanted you too, we just had not gotten the chance to talk to you yet, that is all. I swear."

Tony shushed us from his bed.

"Keep your voices down or else they'll be in here again soon."

I nodded at him and then turned my attention back to Tim. I could see tears glistening in his eyes now and then exactly what I feared happened, one escaped his eye and rolled down his round cheek.

"I don't want to be here, I want to go home," Tim sniffled and rubbed his eye with a closed fist.

I felt panic rise in me. This was our fault. I looked at Tony again who looked clueless as to what to say or do.

"Oh come on, Tim, don't be so…" Tony started but this time I shushed him. This was not the time to make Tim feel stupid for crying or being sad.

My eyes grew big as an idea formed in my head. I got off Tim's bed and started towards the door but turned back before reaching it.

"Wait a second, Tim. I have a proposal for you ok. I am just going to get something."

He removed the fist from his eye and looked up at me in the dark.

"What?" he asked and hiccupped.

"You will see. Just wait."

I tip toed into the room I shared with Abby and was careful not to wake her when I kneeled on the floor and lifted the lid to the cedar chest. I picked up my flash light that I had placed there the other night. I held the cherished item and squeezed it in my hand. My father had given it to me for my birthday once and it had never stopped working. Except when the batteries needed changing of course. I looked down when I felt a nudge on my thigh and there was the dog, lying on the floor with her nose pressed against my thigh. I smiled at her attempt to make me feel good again and patted her soft head before getting back to Tim and Tony's room.

I trudged over to Tim's bed again with the flashlight in my hand and took a seat by his side. I had his attention as he gazed at me, with his knees still pulled up against his chest. I gave him a serious look as I held the flashlight out for him to take.

"Here. If you forgive us for leaving you out and promise not to cry anymore tonight, then this is yours."

Tim just stared at the shining steel flashlight.

"Y…y…you mean it's…for…_me_?"

"Yes. I am giving it to you."

"To keep? Forever?" he asked with big eyes and placed his hands on top of his knees.

"Forever. I promise." I held it closer to him and nodded for him to take it.

Slowly as if not certain I would not change my mind and pull it back he reached for the flashlight.

"But we do have a deal right? You forgive us?"

His hand froze in the air a moment and his gaze flicked from my face to his toes and back again. Then a grin appeared on his face and he took the flashlight.

"Deal, " he said. He weighed the flashlight in his hand and discovered how heavy it was. Then his finger found the button and he pushed it up, turning the flashlight on. Its light was really bright inside the dark room and I had to look away as he accidently put the beam of light right in my face.

Tony grinned at me and mimicked "Not bad" at me as a compliment.

When Tim was finished testing the flashlight he turned it off and put it beside him in the bed. Then he flung at me and put his arms around my neck in a surprisingly big hug.

"Thank you! Thank you a hundred thousand times, Ziva!" he said slightly too loud.

I smiled and returned the hug.

"You are welcome." I whispered. "And remember, " I put my hands on his shoulders and looked at him. "You cannot tell Gibbs or Jenny about the dog. We have to protect her and try to find some place to hide her from her owner who is mean to her."

Tim squared his shoulders some.

"I promise I won't say anything to anyone."

"Good."

After we had struck our deal and all was well again I went back to my warm bed and we all went back to sleep. My bed was now extra warm and extra full because of the big white ball of fluffy fur that was snuggling under the covers and soon snoring along with me.

**To be continued soon**

**A/N: Please send me a small review. The next chapter will be more eventful.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Title: Once upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: Review reply to Tivaxoxo: Since I couldn't answer your review I'll reply here to your question about Ziva's reaction when Gibbs touched her head in an earlier chapter at the beginning. There is not supposed to be abuse in her history so it wasn't about that. She does however come from a different world, in a way, than the others and is used to people being tough on her in some ways. So like you wrote, she just wasn't used to it.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 23**

**Fun and Games and Accidents**

**Tony's POV:**

The next morning the four of us got up early, and I mean early, to take the dog out. We knew she'd be needing to go after a night cooped up in Ziva and Abby's room and we couldn't exactly let her do her thing on the floor in there. So we snuck her outside and out the door in the kitchen, through the gate and out on the street. We had no leash but it wasn't needed anyway because she wouldn't leave our side except to stop and sniff a bush once in a while as we walked up and down the street with her. Abby held my hand and had Philip tucked under her left arm as usual. She yawned big even though she was the only one of us who hadn't been up last night. Ziva had been quick to fill her in though about the events in our room during the night.

The dog looked happy to be outside again but she didn't try to run off or anything. She kept a watchful eye on each of us, almost like a sheepdog guarding and herding her flock, even though she wasn't a sheepdog.

"What kind of dog is she anyway?" Tim asked. He had first been a little cautious near the dog, not sure if he should trust that she wouldn't bite him. We told him she wouldn't though and finally after having her lick his hand for forty seconds straight while he tried to ignore her he gave in and said she must be a nice dog.

"I am not sure, "Ziva said. She picked up a rock and threw it into the bushes of Mrs. Tapps garden as we passed her house. "But she sure is beautiful."

I nodded.

"Yeah, she's nice but she sure is no Chihuahua. If we don't find a place to hide her soon…and I mean a place that's not the house we're all living in, then Gibbs is gonna find her."

I grabbed Ziva's arm and she spun around.

"What about Mrs. Tapps? She must have a place she's not using in her garden, like a shed or something, that we can hide her in. And she can't see so she probably won't notice. Not for a while anyway."

Ziva frowned and stared off at Mrs. Tapps yellow house with all the blue and white hydrangea bushes in the garden.

"No. We cannot do that to Mrs. Tapps. She is so nice to us and it would not be honest."

My shoulders sagged and my arms dropped to my sides.

"Oh yeah, you're right. We can't do that to her. We're just gonna have to come up with something else."

"What about asking her?" Abby's voice came from over by the fence. She had let go of my hand and was peering into the garden. "Maybe she'll say it's ok for the dog to live with her."

Ziva, Tim and I were all quiet and we studied each other's faces.

"Hmm, maybe," Ziva said.

We decided we would ask Mrs. Tapps during the day. It might be our only option if we didn't want Gibbs to find the dog first. We hid the dog in Ziva and Abby's room again and went back to sleep for another hour before heading downstairs to have breakfast.

In the kitchen chaos was in the air. Gibbs and Jenny were huddled over a calendar on the kitchen table and were pointing at today's date, talking in stressed tones of voices about something that was obviously supposed to be going on today. When they saw the four of us at the door they became quiet and Jenny smiled at us.

"Good morning. We didn't see you there."

"No wonder, you seem a little busy with something."

Jenny bent back down over the calendar and squinted a little.

"Yes, Tony, you could say that. What on earth is that little squiggle you've written there, Jethro?"

He looked at the page.

"It says _Bring present_."

Jenny cocked her head to the side and looked annoyed.

"Oh, that's just great. The trouble keeps heaping on us today. Well, I guess we're just going to have to go out and find one right after breakfast then. "

"Yup, I suppose so."

"Whose birthday is it?" Abby asked as she took a seat at the table.

"A very good friend of me and Jethro. Doctor Donald Mallard. We call him Ducky."

Gibbs took a sip of his coffee and smacked his lips with content.

"He is a forensic pathologist. Does anyone know what that is?"

We all thought hard on it. I had never heard the word before but I didn't want that showing so I did my best to make it look like it was at the tip of my tongue.

"I have heard it before, " Ziva said. "But I am not sure exactly what it means."

"Isn't it someone who sells bibles or something?" Tim asked as he tried to turn the page in the calendar to see what was on the other side.

Jenny gently moved his hand aside as she continued to go over each day in the calendar, as if to make sure there wasn't a second appointment she had missed somewhere.

"Honey, have a seat at the table and breakfast will be ready soon, ok?"

Tim and me and Ziva did as jenny said with sighs and dropped into our seats.

"No, not exactly, Tim." Gibbs answered his somewhat childish guess. "A forensic pathologist is someone who examines dead bodies and finds out the truth about how they died."

Jenny straightened to her full height at once.

"Jethro! There is no need to be that specific with the kids. They don't need to know everything, you know."

But we wanted to know everything. Maybe not Tim, he looked kind of worried. But Ziva and I insisted that we wanted to know what it was Doctor Mallard did. Abby nodded that it was ok for her too. She didn't want to be left out. So Gibbs told Jenny he would be gentle but truthful and continued. He told us that Ducky worked for NCIS. Just like Jenny and Gibbs. Only he wasn't a Special Agent, like them, he was a doctor. But not a doctor that made living people like us better. He was a doctor that told the Agents when the person who was dead actually died and maybe even how that person died. He had different ways of finding that out but Gibbs wouldn't tell us exactly how. Even though we did try to get him to tell more than he intended, but getting Gibbs to accidently say more than he wanted wasn't easy to do. He did tell us though that Ducky had to cut on the dead body to find out what they needed to know. Often his work helped lead the agents to a bad guy that they put in jail.

"So, today is Doctor Mallard's birthday?"

"That's right Abby." Jenny said as she put juice and scrambled eggs on the table. "And we had made a special note in our calendar so we wouldn't forget it. Only we forgot to look in it instead. So we just remembered that we are invited to his birthday dinner tonight at the Mallard residence."

A sudden bark brought Jenny to silence and Gibbs froze with his cup in mid air.

"I left the window open upstairs in our room," Ziva said and quickly got up from the table. "I am just going to go close it. It is hot outside and the heat will come into our room."

Gibbs and Jenny exchanged confused looks with each other and the rest of us dug into our scrambled eggs with little interest in absolutely anything else.

"What's the problem with the dinner then?" I asked. "Why don't you just go?"

Gibbs put his cup down and sat down at the table.

"The problem is we didn't plan well enough. We have all of you and we can't just leave you all by yourselves."

The words "all by yourselves" registered in my mind and I realized what Gibbs had just said. Like any nine and a half year old kid I knew it wasn't very often you got to be by yourselves, as a group of kids, in a house an entire evening. It was an excellent opportunity.

"Oh, well, we don't want to stand in your way of going to such an interesting dinner and all. You should go." I smiled my nicest most sincere smile hoping it would work. "We'll be here, spending a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with a good book. I'm a good reader you know," I said with a nod." I could entertain everyone until you got back."

Gibbs gave that crooked little grin he sometimes did when he thought something was really amusing but obviously didn't want to laugh.

"I don't think so, buddy," he said with a quick tussle of my hair. "We can't and we won't leave you here by yourselves. You're not old enough for that. Sorry," he added when I sighed disappointedly.

"And who would have lit the fire, Tony?" Tim asked as he reached for the juice.

"I would have," I told him, grumpily. "With your shirt…" I added under my breath but got a quick glare from Gibbs so I hurriedly returned to my scrambled eggs instead.

Then it happened. Had I known it would I would have clamped a hand over her mouth but of course there wasn't any way I could have known it would happen before it happened. Abby came up with a wish.

"We could come with you. To the party I mean. I wanna go."

I almost choked on my eggs and had to cough once and gulp down some juice.

Ziva came into the kitchen again and took her seat. She took a look at my probably much red and strained face.

"What is the matter with you?"

I just pointed at Abby who looked real pleased with her suggestion.

"I said we could come with Gibbs and Jenny to doctor Mallard's birthday dinner. I wanna meet him. He sounds nice."

Some of the color left Ziva's face too, but I guessed probably not for the same reason as me.

"What? No, that would not be a good idea at all…" she started. "I mean… who would look after the house while we're gone?"

Jenny gave a little laugh. She got up, put the calendar on the kitchen counter and grabbed a tea cup for herself.

"No coffee today, Jen?"

"No, I'm trying to cut back a little, Jethro." She sat back down again" I'll have tea today. Pass me the milk, please."

She poured some milk in her tea and put it beside her.

"And why would we need someone to keep an eye on the house for one evening, Ziva? We never have that. No one looked after it the other day when we were on a picnic, remember?"

I held my breath while I hoped they wouldn't say what I was afraid they would say.

"You know what, I think it's a great idea that Abby had. We should all go to Ducky's dinner. It'll give you the chance to meet him and we can keep our promise," Jenny said and sipped her tea.

Gibbs nodded.

"Sounds good."

I wanted to yell something that would make them change their minds, but being without ideas and taken off guard like I was I didn't yell. Instead I swallowed the huge pile of eggs that had assembled in my mouth and tried to smile. This was going to be a very long evening.

* * *

**Ziva's POV**

**Later in the bathroom:**

I burst through the door to the bathroom where I had seen Tony enter a few minutes ago. He spun around as I entered, with a green toothbrush in his mouth, wearing only his pajama bottoms. He looked angry and tried to tell me to get out, but had a difficult time getting the words out with foamy toothpaste in his mouth. Instead a gurgling sound escaped as he angrily pointed at the door.

Ignoring him I asked what I came to ask.

"Why did you not stop Abby? What are we going to do now?"

Tony spat in the sink and quickly rinsed his mouth.

"Me? What do you mean I should have stopped her? I'm no mind reader you know. I couldn't know what she was gonna say. And besides…"

I held up a hand. "All right, fine. You are right. I am sorry I accused you but I am really worried about tonight."

Tony gave me a puzzled frown and then turned and spat into the sink again.

"Why are you worried? I'm just annoyed. Birthday dinners are always extremely boring. I've been to a lot of them with my father and they're reeeaaly stuffy. You have to sit still the entire time and not move except your hands when you eat. I can't staaand those dinners and I almost always mess up somehow."

"Stop rambling about being bored. I mean, yeah, sure that sounds dead boring but we will survive, I am sure. What I am worried about is the dog. She cannot stay alone in the house all evening without anyone letting her out to go to the bathroom so to speak. There could be a number of accidents in here when we get back late tonight. And what if she starts chewing on things..."

Tony's made a small o with his mouth.

"You're right. That's a problem."

"Yeah, I would say so," I said. "But wait a minute," I grabbed his shoulders. "Gibbs said Ducky's house isn't that far away. It's only a couple of streets from here."

"So?"

"_So_ then one of us has to get away once during the evening, make it back here and let her out for a quick walk in the garden or something and make sure everything is ok."

Tony's face lit up in a smile.

"Hey, that's not a bad plan." He turned sullen again, "But what if we can't find our way back."

I shrugged.

"We just have to be extra advertent tonight in the car when we drive over there."

"Maybe we'll walk if it's close."

"Even better. Then it will be easier for us to notice everything in our surroundings."

I grabbed a pink towel and tossed it to him before heading out the door again.

"We have to let Abby and Tim know about the plan. Move it, Tony, clean and dry yourself and meet us in our room. "

He muttered something about slowing down a little but did as I said and started splashing water on his face.

**Abby's POV:**

**Five P.M**

We had a plan. I liked the idea of having a plan. It made me feel sort of adventurous. And having a secret with Timmy, Tony and Ziva made me feel important. Because we had something important that we shared and wouldn't tell anyone else.

We all climbed into Gibbs and Jenny's rental car for the summer. Jenny had wanted to walk to Doctor Mallard's house but Gibbs hadn't gotten in the shower until just a little while before we were supposed to leave, so he made us late and we had to drive instead. Gibbs started the car and pulled out of the drive way. I had never known anyone who drove like Gibbs. Everything went by so fast outside. When my dad drove things went by much slower. I tried to pay attention to everything outside like we had all agreed. Even though I wasn't the one who was going to run back through the neighborhoods to check on the dog. We had agreed Tony would go. Because he was the fastest runner. Ziva had at first been a little mad and said that he wasn't faster than her at all. But after a while she calmed down and agreed that Tony should go. But she only agreed that he was a little faster than her, not much, only a little.

It didn't take long to reach Ducky's house. Tony, Ziva, Tim and me kept looking out the windows the entire time in the car. Jenny looked back a couple of times with raised eyebrows at our leaning back and forth to get looks at everything that passed by. She even suggested Gibbs should slow down once because we all seemed a little car sick back there.

When we got out of the car we were standing in front of a big yellow house with a long front porch with white pillars and six steps leading up to it. The window shutters were green, just like the long hedge in front of the porch. Gibbs locked the car and we walked behind him and Jenny up onto the porch and waited behind them while they rang the door bell. We had to ring It twice before anyone opened. When the doors swung open it wasn't a man on the other side, but a little old woman in an old fashioned, grey lace dress with buttons that went all the way up to her chin.

The old woman smiled and clapped her hands together.

"Why isn't it, Leroy Jethro Gibbs," She said and looked pleased. "And…" she studied Jenny a moment. "I'm sorry, my dear, have we met?"

I leaned towards Ziva and whispered to her.

"She talks different."

"She has a British accent, Abby. She is from England."

"Oh."

Jenny cleared her throat.

"Mrs. Mallard, I'm Jenny. We met at your birthday about two months ago."

Mrs. Mallard cocked her head to the side and smiled again.

"Oh yes, now I remember. You are Leroy's fiancé, am I correct?"

"Yes, that's right, Mrs. Mallard," Gibbs said. "Your son close by?"

"Oh the birthday boy, yes of course. He is in the living room entertaining his guests by playing a beautiful piece from Chopin on the piano." She stepped aside and gestured for us to enter. That's when she noticed the four of us behind Gibbs and Jenny. "Oh, but who do we have here?"

Gibbs took Jenny's coat and then took off his own.

"These are our summer kids. They are staying with us for the summer. Ziva, Tony, Tim and Abby, say hello to Mrs. Mallard, Ducky's mother."

We all shook Mrs. Mallard's hand and told her our names and she was very happy to meet us. Just to make sure she wasn't also blind like Madame White, I waved my free hand in front of her face. That made her giggle and ask what on earth I was doing but I just giggled back. Tony took my hand after that and we all followed Gibbs and Jenny into a room that was called a lounge. The lounge seemed crowded with adults. There must have been at least twenty people in there. I saw them looking at us kids, probably wondering who we were and suddenly I felt shy. When we stopped I stared at the red carpet under my feet. I heard Gibbs and Jenny talking to a man who had that British accent Ziva had said Mrs. Mallard had. I didn't want to look up just yet because I was afraid to see all the people staring at me again so I just listened as they went on talking. Gibbs said happy Birthday, Duck, and it sounded like Jenny gave him a hug. Ziva, Tony and Tim said hello to him and before I realized it was my turn already. A pair of brown polished shoes blocked my view of the carpet and when I looked up I stood face to face with an older man with a bow tie and glasses. He had on a white shirt and a checkered jacket and he looked very kind.

"Hello there, little one. May I ask what your name might be?"

I swallowed once first but because of how nice he seemed I started feeling my nervousness disappearing. I also glanced around the room and I realized no one was really watching us anymore.

"It's…Abby."

"Oh, a short for Abigail I presume. Lovely name, quite lovely indeed." He extended his hand to me. "I'm Doctor Donald Mallard."

"Hello, Doctor Mallard," I said, doing my best to be polite.

He chuckled gently.

"Oh, please, it's Ducky to my friends."

I felt the last of my jittery feeling go away and I straightened my back and tried to throw both my pig tails over my shoulders. They were too short though and just fall back to their tips just touching my shoulders.

We all liked Ducky's home. It was very big and he let us play hide and seek anywhere we wanted in the house. Tony had told us all that it was going to be boring at the Birthday dinner and we would have to sit still the entire time but we were all glad he was wrong. Gibbs told us before we started playing to be careful and watch where we were going though, because Ducky and Mrs. Mallard had a lot of expensive things. I guess he was afraid we would break something. But we promised to be careful and then we played hide and seek in the house a really long time. Each time we played it took the person searching a long time to find everyone because he or she had to search through the top and bottom floor. One time Timmy scared Tony half to death when he jumped out from behind a corner. There were lots of little nooks in the Mallard house. That was what made it so perfect for hide and seek.

Gibbs and Jenny talked and talked and talked and talked to people in the lounge. Every time I passed by the room I saw them talking to someone. It was strange they didn't get bored talking so much. One time I actually thought Gibbs looked a little bored when he was talking to this fancy woman. So I went over to him and asked him if he wanted to play hide and seek with us instead. He grinned and asked the woman to excuse him for one second and then bent down. He must have seen I was worried about him. He smiled and told me he would like to play with me and if there wasn't so many people he needed to talk to then he would have played with us instead. He explained that when you're an adult you sometimes have to be polite and right now he needed to finish talking to Ms. O'Hara. I looked up at the woman's face and she looked down at me. She didn't smile or say hello or anything. Instead she looked really annoyed. I guessed it was because I had interrupted them. She had a lot of make up on. Red, lipstick, some dark stuff on her eye lids and black eye lashes. Her dark red hair made me think of autumn and her stare almost made me feel cold. I gulped but when I felt Gibbs kiss my cheek I looked at him and smiled at him. I didn't look back at Ms. O'Hara. Then I ran off to continue our game. I thought Gibbs could probably take care of himself.

**Ziva's POV**

Playing hide and seek in Ducky's house was a lot of fun. We agreed Tim won because Tony looked for over half an hour for him. When he had found the rest of us we even joined in the search and it still took another fifteen minutes before we found him. He had hidden himself under a woman's skirt in the lounge. She had of course given him permission and even told him to hide under there when she had seen him looking for a place to hide. Both Jen and Gibbs looked a little embarrassed when Tim finally crawled out from under there with a "Haha,here I am Tony!". Gibbs and Jenny obviously had no idea he had been there the entire time. The entire room burst into laughter though but after that Gibbs announced that he thought it was time for us to play, as he called it, "a more composed game." Just when we were discussing something we could play Mrs. Mallard announced that it was time to eat dinner. We all groaned a little at that but quieted our groans when we got a look from Jenny.

The table had been set and was a long table for all twenty five of the guests. There were twenty five with us kids. The table looked very fancy with expensive wine glasses for the adults, plates, white napkins and a lot of forks and knives to eat with. We got regular glasses but ours' were nice too.

When Mrs. Mallard had heard Gibbs and Jenny were bringing four kids to the dinner party she had ordered some food that she thought we would like better than the fish-stuff the adults were eating. She was right. We all really liked the meatballs with spaghetti and the soda to drink. People gave toasts to Ducky who sat and listened with a small blush on his cheeks. Jenny gave one toast but was interrupted when Abby yanked her sleeve and said she needed to go to the bathroom. Jenny got ready to take her when Gibbs got up and went with her instead. With Gibbs out of his seat I could not help but notice the woman who was sitting next to him. She had red hair and a red dress and red earrings and pretty much seemed to have gone with the theme red on everything this evening. I heard Jenny call her Ms. O'Hara once when asking her to pass the water. With Gibbs out of the way she stared at us with penetrating eyes. It was like she wanted to tell us we were not really supposed to be there. I just stared back at her until she finally turned her gaze away. When I turned back I saw Tony grinning.

"What?" I asked and took a bite of one of my meatballs.

"Nothing. Just that you don't seem afraid of her is all." He shoveled some spaghetti into his mouth.

"No, of course not. Why would I be?"

Tony took a moment to swallow.

"Because anyone who isn't an adult can see that that woman doesn't like kids. And that she's a mean person."

I shrugged. "Yes, that is obvious." I looked at the woman smile and talk friendly with Jenny about this and that. It was easy to see that she had a very smooth tongue around adults. "Well, who cares about her anyway. We have more important things to talk about." I leaned as far as I could across the table and lowered my voice. "It is time for us to play a game outside in the garden."

Tim gave me a puzzled frown. "Outside? Why outside?"

Tony sighed and shook his head at Tim's question. "Because, Timmy, I feel like_ running _off some energy. And I think someone needs to pee."

"I don't have to pee. And Gibbs is already helping Abby." Tim put the last of his dinner in his mouth and chewed.

"Not you, dummy," Tony hissed between clenched teeth. "The _dog_,"he whispered.

Tim stopped chewing and nodded with big eyes that he understood what we were talking about now.

As soon as Abby got back with Gibbs we asked if we could go outside and play in Ducky's garden. He said we could if we had all finished our food. Quickly I swallowed the last of my spaghetti to show Gibbs and then we all got to leave. Tony took off towards the doorway and as I turned to follow I accidently ran into Ms. O'Hara. The bump made her take a step to the side and tip the wine glass she was holding. Red wine splashed all over her dress and I froze in front of her. I looked around and saw that the rest of the room was busy in conversation and had not noticed what had happened. I was not sure if that was a good or bad thing though because when she raised her chin I saw murder in her dark brown eyes. She fixed her cold stare on me and looked like she was about to speak when I felt a hand touch my shoulder gently. I looked up and Gibbs stood behind me looking at Ms. O'Hara.

"What happened?" He raised an eye brow like he was waiting for an answer. "Ziva?"

"I…I, I bumped into her. Wine was splashed."

"Oh," he said. "Ms. O'Hara, are you all right?"

She took a breath as if to keep herself from exploding in front of Gibbs. "Yes, yes of course, Agent Gibbs. I'm all right. It was just a bit of wine."

Feeling more confident now that Gibbs stood behind me I offered her a smile. "It is good that your dress is so red, Ms. O'Hara, so that the wine did not really change its color."

"Ziva," Gibbs said in a sterner tone. "It was an accident but it's not a joke. Apologize." He said.

I lowered my head some. "I am sorry, Ma'am."

"I'll go get you something to dry your dress with, Ms. O'Hara." Gibbs put a hand on the top of my head as he walked away.

As Gibbs walked off Tim came over to me. "Are you coming, Ziva?" he asked. "We're waiting for you."

Ms. O'Hara discreetly pushed Tim aside and bent down so we were face to face. That cold stare was still there and she looked like she might have sharp fangs hidden in her mouth. And she seemed to want to use them.

"I don't care if it was an accident or not, you little slouch. You caused this to happen and if you ever do anything like it again, I'll…"she was interrupted by another push, this time to her lower back. Tony had come running our way.

Ms. O'Hara staggered forward and I took a step aside so I would not collide with her again.

"What the he…" she spun around and saw Tony standing there.

"Really sorry about that. I came running to get Ziva and when you took that step back I wasn't prepared for it and ran into you."

Things were getting a little louder now and people were beginning to notice that something was going on down by our end of the table. Now however, Jenny put down her napkin and got to her feet.

"What's going on?" she asked mostly directing her question at Tony who looked the most guilty at the moment. My remorse had turned into anger at Ms. O'Hara threatening me and I did not really care who bumped into her anymore. I was only sorry Tony had not been carrying a plate with food that could have gotten stuck to her butt.

"This child here," Ms O'Hara pointed at Tony, "ran straight into me from behind. And I'm sure it was no accident this time." She had a hard time hiding her wild anger from showing now.

"Tony, is that true?" Jenny asked with a frown. "Did you collide with Ms O'Hara on purpose?"

Tony held up his hands and shook his head. "No, of course not. I was just coming to get Ziva who was talking to Ms O'Hara . Ms. O'Hara took a step back when I was passing behind her and..."

Ms. O'Hara's face became red with frustration. "That's a lie! I took no step back! You really should look after these kids more," she said to Jenny. "If they were mine…"

"God forbid," I muttered under my breath but loud enough for the others to hear. Suddenly I felt Tony clamp a hand over my mouth and pull me back a little. Jenny turned to us both with a slightly confused and a bit suspicious look on her face.

"I don't know what's going on, but right now I want the two of you- and you" she pointed a finger at Tim, "to go outside and play for a while. That way we can avoid any more problems."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Tony and let go of me. We both ran for the front door as fast as we could with Tim following. I knew I had let my temper control me there for a minute and we were lucky we did not get into trouble. But Tony was right. Ms. O'Hara was mean.

* * *

**To be continued**

**A/N: So chapter 23 is now read. Please send me a review with your thoughts after reading it. I hope you're all having a great beginning of the summer.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Title: One Upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: Answer to NCISNumber1Fan's question: You asked if I made up Ms. O'Hara and yes I have. She's never been on the show, she's a character that I have created for this story. And you asked about Ducky's age in the story. Gibbs and Jenny are supposed to be a bit younger in the story than on the show and so is Ducky. I haven't bothered to decide the exact age of anyone of them though. I'm glad you like the story.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 24**

**Intruder**

**Tony's POV:**

I crossed streets, leaped over hedges and flew past barking dogs on my run from Ducky's house to Gibbs and Jenny's little white house on Pineroad.

**In the meantime in Ducky's garden:**

"What are you playing?" Gibbs asked as he walked into the back yard and found Tim, Abby and Ziva just standing there looking like they had been caught red handed doing something. When he looked around he couldn't see anything that seemed wrong or dangerous around them though.

Ziva cleared her throat.

"Gibbs, we did not hear you coming. We are playing police and criminal. We are all police officers," she said, indicating herself and the two younger children.

Gibbs glanced around the back yard with the English garden furniture consisting of a couch, three chairs, a table and also a wooden garden swing that had room for two adults.

"Where's Tony?" he asked, not seeing the energetic boy anywhere.

"Oh, he's the hiding criminal we have to find," Ziva explained and hooked a string of her brown hair behind her ear.

**1242 Pineroad**

**Tony's POV:**

When I arrived at the house I found the door open a crack. Of course I thought it was weird and I kept very quiet while sneaking in. Carefully treading into the kitchen and from there into the living room I saw something odd. The door to the cupboard where Gibbs and Jenny kept a couple of fancy looking vases, a tea set and some sculptures of almost naked men and women was flung open. Also, all drawers were pulled out. I ran over there and looked inside the cupboard. As far as I could tell nothing seemed to be missing. Also weird, I thought with a frown.

Scanning the room for more weirdness I noticed the floor. All over the floor there were footprints. Not complete footprints, but more like half of a foot. The person who had been in there had had muddy shoes. I walked over to one footprint and studied it for a moment. It looked like a print of a man's shoe.

"But why didn't he take anything?" I asked myself.

Suddenly I felt something nudge my hand and I nearly jumped high into the air with surprise.

I looked down. "Oh, dog," I breathed out again. "You almost gave me a heart attack. If that's even possible at the age nine and a half. Hmm, I need to ask Gibbs about that because I really don't know if it's possible to…" I kicked my left shin with my right foot. "No no, I have to focus. There's been a break in here." That's when it hit me and I went down to a crouch. "You defended this house, didn't you girl? You scared him away before he had a chance to take anything or get farther than this room." Feeling a mite proud I smiled at the dog who sat down in front of me with her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

"Well, I came here to take you for a quick walk. But from the looks of things right outside the front door you already took care of that yourself. So I should get back to the dinner party before Gibbs or Jen notice I'm gone. The others can't stall forever."

We headed for the girls' room upstairs to hide her again. "And hey, next time you need to poop, do it on the other side of the fence, ok?"I stared at the open front door and sighed. "Because now I have to pick that up somehow."

* * *

**Tim's POV**

"Come inside now, you four," Jenny called to us with a wave from the kitchen door. "It's time for dessert."

I chewed on my bottom lip, not sure what to say. We couldn't go inside before Tony was back…

"We want to stay here and play some more, Jenny," said Ziva.

"You can go outside again after desert. Come inside now."

"Pleeease, Jenny," Abby pleaded.

Jenny touched the bridge of her nose and looked a little tired. She started walking over to us by the garden swing where we had been pushing each other when she appeared.

"No, no you do not have to come get us," Ziva yelled to her. "We will be right in. Just give us one minute." She hurried to start helping Abby down from the garden swing.

Jenny turned and yelled over her shoulder for us to hurry up.

"What are we going to do now, Ziva?" Abby asked. "Tony isn't here."

"No he is not back yet. I do not know."

She looked at me with worried eyes. "We just have to think of something to tell them because we cannot stay out here all evening."

"Maybe we say Tony doesn't like desert," I suggested and got a look from Ziva saying that wasn't good enough. "Or maybe not."

Next thing we knew Gibbs was calling us from the kitchen door.

"Ziva, Abby, Tim, go get Tony and come right inside. It's time for dessert and Mrs. Mallard wants you to taste her lemon pie."

"Uh…yes Gibbs. We are coming."

We knew we couldn't go find Tony because he wasn't hiding from us so we started walking slowly towards the main entrance. We walked as slowly as we could, to stall, but eventually we got there anyway. I forced myself to put my hand on the door handle and open the door. We entered and right inside the door stood Ms. O'Hara and a dark haired man in a red jacket.

"You weren't gone long…"Ms. O'Hara stopped herself when they noticed us. They looked angrily our way like we had meant to bother them and then started walking away.

"Who is that man?" Abby whispered.

"I do not know," said Ziva with a shrug of her shoulders. "He sat next to her earlier at the dinner table."

As they were walking away I noticed the sleeve of his nice red jacket was torn at the elbow. I wondered how that happened.

Ms O'Hara cast a look over her shoulder and saw us following them with our eyes. She placed her hand on the man's elbow and shielded the part where his jacket was shredded at the same time.

"Hm,"I said to myself.

* * *

**Ziva's POV:**

We entered the lounge which was filled with people talking in loud voices and the sound of cutlery clinking as forks and knives were switched to spoons. We kept as far away from Jenny and Gibbs as possible to avoid having to answer questions about Tony. I did not like deceiving them but we had no choice. It did not take long though before Gibbs saw us and whispered something in Jen's ear. They headed over to us through the crowd.

"There you are," Jen said with a smile that soon disappeared. "Where is Tony?" she asked with a frown.

"Er…"I started.

"I'm right here!" came a voice from behind us and when we spun around we all saw Tony coming in through the main entrance door, panting. He was all winded and his hair all sticky from the run. "My hiding place was so good that they just couldn't find me. I guess I'm the winner of hide and seek this evening after all, Tim." He had a big grin covering his face as he said that last bit.

"But I thought we said I won…" Tim started but I gave him a little push to quiet him. This was not the time to slip up.

"Must have been a really exhausting game of hide and seek you've been playing, Tony. Since you're all sweaty, I mean." Gibbs said with both eyebrows raised.

Tony looked around at the rest of us as if he wanted us to come to his rescue. "Well, I ran all the way back from where I hid and…"

"I chased him for a while before going inside." I finished for him.

Gibbs eyes narrowed like a cat's eyes. "I thought you said you couldn't find him before you came in."

My mouth suddenly became dry as dust. "I…"

Mrs. Mallard appeared in the door opening, clapping her hands twice.

"Everyone please take your seats. Dessert will be on the table in one minute."

Gibbs stare held mine captive until I finally escaped by looking away. We were saved for the time being.

* * *

**Tony's POV:**

Gibbs let the whole thing with me being missing go for the time being while we had dessert. The lemon pie was great and I had a boat load of it. I didn't dare tell the others about the break in until we were alone so we all just ate our pie, peering at each other now and then.

I left the table when I felt I had to make a visit to the bathroom. There had been no time for that while running from Gibbs and Jenny's house to Ducky's. I went upstairs where I had seen a bathroom earlier while we were playing up there. Just coming up the landing I heard two voices talking. I took a step back down and glanced around the corner. The voices were coming from the small study down the hall. I recognized Mrs. Mallard's spry voice but who did the second voice belong to? I became curious and instead of going left to the bathroom I instead went right towards the study. I stopped outside and peeked around the corner. I gasped when I saw it was Ms. O'Hara that Mrs. Mallard was talking to. They were standing by a big glass cabinet and Mrs. Mallard was taking something out of there and showing it to that wicked Mrs. Claus. It was a necklace. That's when I decided I wanted to see what was going on up close. Ms. O'Hara wasn't going to do anything as long as Mrs. Mallard was there. So, I walked over to them, making sure to make a lot of noise when I entered the small study.

"What are you doing?" I asked, standing just behind them.

Mrs. Mallard looked down and noticed me there. She smiled and lowered her hands some. In them she had a necklace that looked really expensive with its red and black stones placed one red, one black, one red, one black, all the way on a silver chain.

"Wow, that looks like something a queen would wear," I said and reached out to touch it. I pulled my hand back when I got a slap on it from Ms. O'Hara. "Ow!" I yelled angrily, glaring at her.

"Children shouldn't touch expensive jewelry," Ms. O'Hara said and looked very pleased with herself.

Mrs. Mallard chuckled. "Oh, it's alright, Deena, Tony is a careful boy." She let me run my hand over the stones on the necklace before she put it back in the cabinet. "You see, Tony, Deena is very interested in jewelry. " she closed the door and locked it with a key that she put in the pocket of her dress. "She is also a victim."

"How is that?" I asked, pretending to care about Ms. O'Hara's problems.

"Because last week someone broke into Deena and her boyfriend Fabricio's, house and stole two necklaces, one gold ring and a diamante bracelet. Isn't that a horrible tragedy?" Mrs. Mallard looked really broken up about the ring and bracelet being taken from Ms. O'Hara and her boyfriend as she shook her head and then squeezed Ms. O'Haras's hand "Have the police found any leads yet, as to who could have done it?"

Ms. O'Hara cleared her throat and cast an annoyed glance at me like she wanted me to go away. "No, not yet. Agent Gibbs assures me that the local police are doing everything they can though. He even agreed to check with them for me. I'm just desperate to see my babies again."

I couldn't help but snort. "Babies?"

Ms. O'Hara seemed to grit her teeth but ignored me.

"Good, I sincerely hope they find them," said Mrs. Mallard. " We should go back and finish dessert with the other guests."

"Yes, we should," I nodded with a grin. I completely forgot about visiting the bathroom. I just had to get back and tell the others about Ms O'Hara calling her jewelry "babies", because that was pretty funny to me.

* * *

**Tim's POV**

We were all huddled together underneath the stairwell in the hall with view of the opening to the lounge. People passed us now and then but no one noticed us so it felt kind of exciting. Tony said we needed a place to have a secret meeting because he had things to tell us and we all agreed that under the stairs would be a good place.

"So what happened at the little house, Tony?" Ziva asked and leaned her back against the wall under the stairs. Abby sat next to Ziva and they both faced me and Tony who had our backs to the opening. "Was the dog alright?"

"She was fine. But there was something else that wasn't fine. In fact, it was a small disaster." He paused and I held my breath. "There had been a break-in at the house."

"What?" Ziva and Abby yelled at the same time.

"Shhhh!" Tony hushed them. "Yes, someone had been inside the house and broken into the cupboard in the living room, looking for something. Nothing seemed to be missing though."

Ziva gave Tony a skeptic look. "How can you know that nothing was missing?"

Tony cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows. "Because I have an excellent memory. I can take a look at something once and then remember what was in for example a cupboard."

Ziva gave a little laugh but didn't say anymore about it.

"I think the dog scared away the burglar. She saved the house," Tony continued.

"Wow," Abby whispered, sitting with her knees drawn to her chest.

Tony nodded. "Yeah, she had a piece of cloth in her mouth when I found her. She must have bitten the burglar somewhere and tore the piece form his clothes."

"Wow," Abby whispered again and let her mouth stay open.

I chewed a little on one of my knuckles while my thoughts went around in my head. "What color was the cloth?" I asked in a quiet voice.

Tony looked at me. "What difference does that make?"

"Because the man who was with Ms. O'Hara had a red jacket and it looked like it had been torn earlier."I pointed at my elbow. "Right here."

We all exchanged glances and then peeked outside. We took a good look at Ms. O'Hara and the man who sat next to her at the table.

"His name is Fabricio," said Tony. "Mrs. Mallard told me before that Ms. O'Hara and Fabricio, who is her boyfriend, were robbed the other night. All they took was her jewelry." Tony leaned forward and lowered his voice even more. "And she loves jewelry. I caught her looking at Mrs. Mallard's necklaces before. She has them locked inside a cabinet in the small study upstairs."

"And Ms. O'Hara was alone?" asked Ziva.

"No, Mrs. Mallard was there with her, showing her the necklaces. But Ms. O'Hara's eyes practically shined when she looked at one necklace that looked like something Cinderella would wear."

Ziva straightened her back and threw her long braid over her shoulder. "I know about the break in as well."

"How?" Tony looked surprised.

"I heard Gibbs and Jenny talking about it the other night on the porch. It was right before the incident on the bridge with the dog."

We all looked knowingly at each other. We suspected the same thing now.

"Fabricio was the one inside Gibbs and Jenny's house tonight. He was the burglar," said Ziva with a grim look.

We all agreed this was something we had to think on hard before we told anyone. We didn't have any proof besides the red jacket. Abby said she wanted to tell Gibbs and Jenny about the break in and the rest of us wanted that too, but there was the problem with the dog. If we told them now then they would find out Tony had gone back to the house during the dinner party and they would ask why and we would have to tell them about the dog. Ziva wouldn't even hear of that and Tony, me and Abby didn't like the idea of it either so we decided we would keep quiet. We didn't have a choice. But I really didn't like it. My grandfather had always made a big point that lying was wrong and so was not telling something you knew you should tell.

* * *

**1242 Pineroad**

**Midnight**

As Gibbs reached out to put the key in the hole the door squeaked open. He realized it had already been opened by someone else. Behind him the kids chatted but when he didn't move from the door opening Jenny shushed them.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I don't know." Gibbs turned to the kids. Abby looked half asleep hugging Philip and holding Ziva's hand, Tim swallowed nervously and Tony kept staring past Gibbs and into the house like he was expecting something to show itself. "Stay here," Gibbs said and gently pushed the door open all the way. He and Jenny entered quietly and stealthily, keeping close to the walls and moving almost without making a sound. They went through the bottom floor and found the cabinet that had been broken into and the footprints on the floor. Gibbs could hear whispers coming from the front door and suddenly Ziva practically flew through the hall and over to the stairs with a "I will check our room!"

"Ziva, no!" Jenny yelled after the girl. "Stop!"

But Ziva was so quick and just a few seconds after she had disappeared she was back at the landing again.

"Our room is safe" she said in a small voice. "No one in there."

Gibbs frowned and wiped his forehead tiredly. He took the stairs in three big strides and was soon by Ziva's side. He kneeled down and fixed his eyes on her.

"Ziva," he began."That was very dangerous." he paused for a moment and placed a finger under her chin to raise it. "Whoever broke into our house could still have been up there."

"But he was not…"Ziva started but Gibbs held up a hand in front of her face to quiet her.

"It doesn't matter. We needed to look through the house before you could enter. You knew that, didn't you?"

She swallowed once before answering. "Yes, Gibbs."

"Then don't do that again."

"I will not."

"Good. You can go to your room." He stood up and looked down the stairs at the other three kids who had now also come inside and was peering up at them. "You can all go with Ziva and stay up there while me and Jen look over the house."

They all trudged up the stairs together and walked past Gibbs, sending him questioning little glances. Gibbs descended the stairs again and walked over to Jen who stood looking into the open cupboard.

"They didn't take anything." She showed him one of the statues. "This was knocked over. Nothing is missing though. Very strange. Usually they take something once having broken in even though they might not have found what they would have preferred to steal."

Gibbs nodded.

"The kids in their rooms now?" Jenny asked while looking over the items in the cupboard.

"Yes, I sent them to Ziva and Abby's room. And I talked to Ziva."

"Yes, I heard. That girl nearly gave cause for some defibrillators to be used on me. Why would she rush upstairs like that, Jethro?"

Gibbs just shook his head. He had a feeling Ziva had understood the danger but ignored it. "My gut tells me something is going on with her, Jen. Maybe with all of them. "

Crickets playing were heard through the open front door as Jenny went to close it behind them. "What would that be?" she asked from the hall.

Gibbs scratched his head. "I don't know, Jen. We should watch them the next few days to see what's going on."

Jenny's high heel shoes made her steps echo in the kitchen as she entered and put her bag on the kitchen table with a thud. "It's so frustrating that someone's been inside here," she said with a tired sigh. "Looking through our things. I need to check so my grandmother's necklace is still in the box behind the drawer in our bedroom."

"It is. No footprints up there. Only down here. It's like they never got as far as the second floor."

"You make sure the kids get into bed, Jethro, and I'll report this to the local police. I'll tell them they can come in the morning though and that we'll conduct a quick investigation of our own home for now."

* * *

**Ziva's POV**

**Upstairs in the girls' room**

We were all gathered seated on the floor between the two beds with the dog put safely under my bed in case Gibbs or Jenny walked in. Only her head stuck out from under there. She had been so thrilled to see us that it seemed she had thought we had abandoned her. She was standing right by the door on the inside as we entered and when we came inside she managed to tackle me to the floor and shower my face with licks with her big wet tongue. Lucky for us she did not bark. It was like she knew she had to be careful.

We sat closely together so we could whisper to each other.

"Phew, that was close," I said. "I had to run upstairs and say I checked our room to make sure Gibbs did not enter our room and notice our friend here, " I said and patted the dog's head. She happily licked my hand.

"That was fast thinking, Ziva," said Tony. "Now we need to…"

"Shhhh,"

Tony looked at Tim with a curious frown. "Don't shush me, Timmy you…"

"Someone's coming!" Tim said with big eyes and we hurried to get the dog completely under the bed.

There was a very brief knock and Gibbs appeared at the door. He had a blank face and didn't say anything at first as he studied us all, one by one.

"Alright kids, it's time for bed," He spoke determinedly. "Boys go brush your teeth and then head over to your own room, girls you change into pajamas."

Arguing seemed like a bad idea so we all did as we were told without arguing tonight and besides, we were tired. Who would think dinner parties were this exhausting.

That night I lay awake a long time, thinking. I thought about the dog and that we needed to find a place to hide her where nobody could find her. And I thought about the break in and that mean Ms. O'Hara and her boyfriend Fabricio. Somehow we had to investigate if they really were the burglars and if they were- find evidence so we could prove it.

**To be continued**

**A/N: Please let me know what you think of this chapter by sending me a quick review.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Title: Once Upon a Summertime**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I just want to get everything right. Anyway, here is chapter 25.**

CHAPTER 25

**Tony's POV:**

A knock on our bedroom door brought me awake and I sat up in bed.

"Tim," I whispered across the room. "Something's going on. Wake up."

I heard a groan from the other bed and Tim sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What?"

The door opened and Ziva padded in wearing her white nightgown.

"Ziva, "I said annoyed. "What are you doing? It's only seven o'clock in the morning."

Ziva rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her. "I know that, Tony, but I thought I should tell you that Gibbs and Jenny have been up for an hour talking on the phone and to each other about break -ins."

Now it was my time to roll my eyes at her. "Well, of course they're talking about break-ins, stupid. There was one here last night!"

Tim just pulled the covers back over his head and groaned again.

Ziva placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. "Do not start yelling at me, Tony DiNozzo. I know there was a burglar here last night. I am not without a memory. I mean an_other_ break-in at _another_ house."

She now had Tim's attention too. "Another break-in?" he asked, peaking out from under the covers.

"Yes. They are talking about it now. Get up and let's go listen at the stairs." She turned and headed back out the door into the hallway.

"I have a better idea," said Tony.

**Five minutes later**

**Abby's POV:**

We were all sitting together on the bathroom floor, surrounding a loose pipe underneath the sink. Tony had noticed it was loose the other night when going to the bathroom and when removed he could hear into the kitchen downstairs. We could hear Gibbs and Jenny talking down there about burglars breaking into people's homes. We all tried to keep still so we could hear them better.

"Mrs. Tapps had her jewelry stolen too?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes, she just called. She was really upset to hear about the break-in here. However, I'm more concerned about her. They took all her jewelry, Jethro." Jenny said with a sad voice. "Maybe we could make some calls and find out what the police are doing so far."

Gibbs cleared his throat. "I'm sure the officers in charge of this are doing everything they can, Jen."

Jenny sighed. "I know. I'll tell her when I talk to her again. There certainly are a lot of break-ins in this neighborhood right now, Jethro. First Ms. O'Hara and Fabricio LoRusso's house, then Mrs. Tapps and now us. "

"I agree. " a chair scraped against the floor. "I'm going to get the kids out of bed now. No point in them sleeping forever just because of this. We can talk about it later."

When we heard that Tony got up so fast he hit his head on the basin and said "ouch!" really loud. He looked a little annoyed when I put a finger over my lips and shushed him. I didn't think he should be the only one to do that. There had to be justice in the world. I was first at the bathroom door and flung it open.

"Hurry, all back to their beds!" Ziva said in a low voice.

We all hurried. I jumped back in my bed and pulled the covers up and Ziva did the same, right after snapping her fingers under the bed so the dog would run in under there and hide. Soon the door opened and Gibbs poked his head in.

"Wake up, girls. It's time for breakfast."

He came inside and took a seat on my bed. I held my breath. What if the dog poked her head out or barked. I pulled the covers back and opened my eyes, trying to look like I had just woken up.

"Hey, Gibbs," I said. "Er, weather nice today?"

Gibbs smiled a little smile at me and stroked my head. "Yeah, it's sunny and warm. And time to get up," he said and jokingly pulled the covers back and picked me up. I couldn't help but laugh because it happened so fast.

"Eeeee!" I yelled. "Giiiibbs! Put me down!"

And he did. He put me down right on my feet and handed me my slippers.

"Ziva come on now." He said and started to bend down to take out Ziva's slippers from under the bed. I gulped and put a hand over my mouth but just then Ziva sat up straight and yelled.

"No! I do not want slippers!"

Gibbs stopped and stood up again looking surprised.

"Er, I mean uh..sorry, Gibbs. I am just really hot because I forgot to open the window last night. I am going to splash some water in my face and then I will be right down for breakfast."

Gibbs still didn't look convinced at first. But then he stopped looking at Ziva with that special Agent investigator look he had and headed for the door.

"See you downstairs," He said as he closed the door behind him.

**Tony's POV:**

Gibbs decided to paint the stairs inside the house around noon that day. He said it was something he had been putting off doing a long time now and Jen seemed pleased he was getting to it. We weren't very pleased though, since they told us that meant we had to stay outside the entire time and play. No going up or down those stairs until the paint's dried, Gibbs said. Ziva whispered something in Hebrew that sounded like a curse. She didn't like not being able to reach the dog when she wanted to. After breakfast we were ushered outside while Gibbs went to stalk up on paint tins and brushes. It was another hot day so we had all dressed as lightly as possible.

"We should have a secret meeting," I said and brushed some grass from my red sneakers.

Abby nodded. "Yes, I want to have a secret meeting."

Tim and Ziva agreed that it was a good idea.

"But we need to have it somewhere private, where nobody will be able to hear us," said Ziva.

Tim pointed at the tree house high up in the proud maple tree. "Up there! That's a good place."

Ziva and I smiled. She seemed to be thinking the same thing I was thinking. Tim had been so afraid of climbing up there until I tricked him and Gibbs had gone up after him. It seemed to have changed his mind a lot about the tree house.

I turned to Abby. "Abs, are you okay with coming up there with us? You've never been up there before and it's really high."

Abby shrugged. "I'm fine. I want to and so does Philip." She hugged the stuffed duck close to her chest. The yellow stuffed animal melted together with the yellow t-shirt she wore with black sleeves.

"Alright then," Ziva said. "Gibbs did say it was ok to bring Abby up there as long as we made sure she did not fall down."

"I won't fall down," Abby assured us and ran for the maple tree.

We all climbed up the ladder. Ziva was up there in a flash, Tim took it real careful and I climbed behind Abby, helping her take one rug at a time and slowly make her way up to the tree house. Up there we sat on the floor, facing each other with our legs crossed.

Ziva started to whisper.

"There's no need to whisper," I reminded her. "No one can hear us up here as long as we don't shout."

"Good. So we should talk about how we are going to prove that Ms. O'Hara and Fabricio are the burglars who broke in last night."

"We don't have any evidence yet, "Tim said with a sigh. "Except for Fabricio's red jacket being torn and him disappearing from Ducky's dinner right when the break -in must have happened."

Ziva nodded and rested her chin in her hand with her elbow supported against her thigh. "No. And we cannot use the dog having the piece of cloth in her mouth as evidence either because we cannot tell anyone about her."

"I don't like Ms. O'Hara," Abby said. "She's not nice. She didn't like when I interrupted her and Gibbs."

"No, she really hates kids." Ziva frowned and looked stood up on her knees to see out the window. "I am really worried about the dog. It does not feel good that we cannot go up and check on her until that stupid paint has dried."

I waved my hand dismissively in the air. "Oh, come on, Ziva. Don't worry so much. So far she hasn't left the room except to chase out that burglar Fabricio so it's not likely she'll leave now either. And the paint will probably be dry before she needs to go outside since you took her out before Gibbs and Jenny woke up."

She sat back down and crossed her legs again. "Maybe you are right."

"Of course I am. Everything is under control. But we need to come up with a plan to find some evidence that Ms. O'Hara and Fabricio are the burglars. Otherwise they're gonna rob someone else besides poor Mrs. Tapps and us."

"But they didn't take anything from us," said Tim.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I know _that_. But that's only because the dog stopped them. And besides, they have no business coming here. This is our house, not theirs."

Abby nodded so her pig tails bobbed. "Yeah, it's our house."

We all looked at each other. None of us had really liked the idea of being here in the beginning but now things had changed. We had a mission to stop the burglars of the neighborhood, Ms. O'Hara and Fabricio, and we had a common friend to protect, the dog.

"I just thought of something else," I said, leaning forward a little. "What's her name? The dog I mean. We haven't called her anything except the dog."

"Yeah, she should have a name," Tim agreed. "A nice one. Like Spot or Brutus."

Ziva raised an eyebrow at Tim. "She is a girl, Tim. Brutus is not really on the list."

"Oh, okay," Tim said, a little disappointed. "How about Molly or Sugar or something cute like that?"

"Molly and Sugar?" I couldn't believe my ears. "What are you, a girl or a boy?"

"Tony!" Ziva said sternly and glared at me. She turned to Tim who looked a little hurt. "I do not think those names will fit her so well, Tim. But the right one will probably hit us when we least expect it. "

"All right," I impatiently got us back on topic again. "Does anyone have any ideas about the plan to get the evidence?"

Abby suddenly raised her hand as high in the air as she could.

"Yes, Abby."

"Sneaking," she said.

Ziva frowned. "Sneaking?"

Abby nodded proudly. "Uh huh. Sneaking into their house. Then maybe we find something hinky that will lead us to Madame White's jewelry."

"Hinky?" I asked and wrinkled my nose. "You mean suspicious?"

Abby nodded. "Yes."

"Oh, I don't know, Abby," I said with hesitation. "Sneaking into their house sounds real risky."

"I'm not sure I want to sneak into anyone's house," Tim said and bit his bottom lip.

Ziva switched position to sitting on her knees. "Perhaps not _into_ their house. But how about we sneak _up to_ their house. We could just spy on them through the window without them seeing us."

"That's not a bad idea," I said. "We'll do some surveillance. Watch the bad guys a bit and see what they're up to. Good plan, Abs."

Abby beamed.

**Ziva's POV:**

An hour later we got a surprise visit from a friend. Mrs. Tapps showed up to have tea with Jenny in the kitchen. Wearing her usual white cotton dress and with her hair worn in a bun she walked up to the front door, just using her right hand to feel what was at her side. She ran her hand across the square porch column before taking the last step up. We just got back from the store after picking up some baloney Gibbs was going to cook for dinner when we saw her. We all rushed over to her and Abby threw her small arms around her waist and hugged her. Mrs. Tapps gave a little surprised yelp and steadied herself with her hand against the door.

"Oh, hello, my sweeties. How lovely to see you. Jenny has invited me over for tea and I of course couldn't resist."

"Er, Mrs. Tapps?"

"Yes, Ziva, what is it?"

"I was wondering if we could talk to you later, after you have had tea? It is really important."

Mrs. Tapps smiled as she kept her eyes staring out over the street behind us. Being blind she rarely looked directly in your eyes.

"Of course that will be alright. "

"Thank you," Tony added. "We sort of need to ask you a favor."

"Oh, that sounds exciting. I cannot wait to hear what it is. But now I must head inside before Jenny starts to wonder what's keeping me."

As we walked away I reminded Abby who wondered why we wanted to talk to Madame White that it was because we had to ask her to let the dog stay in her house for a while. It was getting harder and harder to keep Gibbs and Jenny from finding her.

Jenny poured tea for Mrs. Tapps and sat down next to her at the kitchen table. "It's going very well with them. They are all wonderful children."

"Don't they miss their parents?" asked Mrs. Tapps.

Jenny pushed an annoying sling of her red hair from her eyes. "Yes, that has been an issue of course. As it always is with kids. But I think they're really starting to like it here. At least Jethro and I are very glad to have them here."

Gibbs entered the kitchen with both hands covered with white spots from painting the stairs.

"How are the stairs coming along, Jethro?"

Gibbs smiled friendly at Mrs. Tapps. "Quite well. It's finally finished. Now it just has to dry."

"That's a lot of work you just put in. But now it's finally been done," Jenny said and exchanged a grin with him.

"Yup, finally happy now?" Gibbs asked with humor in his voice. "Is there nothing stronger than tea brewing?"

"There is coffee in the thermos for you."

Gibbs moved over to the bench next to the sink and grabbed the thermos. "Thanks. The kids out in the backyard?"

"I met them out front when I arrived half an hour ago," Mrs. Tapps said and took an oatmeal cookie from the plate on the table. "I think they headed out the gate."

Gibbs went and opened the front door a crack.

"Yep, they're out there on the street drawing with a piece of crayon on the ground," he said from the hall.

Mrs. Tapps snickered and Jenny turned.

"On the street?"

Gibbs came back to the kitchen. "Relax, Jen. It'll disappear as soon as it rains."

Jenny figured it didn't matter much as long as no one complained. Because what if it didn't rain for weeks.

"Well, as long as they're staying out of trouble I'm happy."

**Tony's POV:**

Waiting for Mrs. Tapps to come out of the house we had started a game of hopscotch on the street right outside the little white gate leading to the garden. It had been Abby's idea and although I hadn't been too thrilled over the idea of hopscotch, which I saw as a girls' game, I went along anyway. I think Ziva was anxious to do hopscotch but she did her best to cover that up by huffing about it.

"My turn!" Abby yelled and threw the rock which landed in the fourth square. She squealed with delight as she jumped after it on one leg, pigtails bouncing.

"All right, Abby, now pick up the rock while you are on one leg." Ziva said as we watched Abby go.

"Move aside, you brats, before I kick you out of my way," a low and hoarse voice surprised us all.

Ziva and I and Tim spun around while Abby dropped the rock in fright and let her other foot hit the ground. We all stood there with our mouths open, staring at a man dressed in black worn down jeans and a dark leather coat. In his mouth was a burning cigar. He took two steps closer to us and his heavy black boots seemed to make a noise similar to thunder clashing.

His slim mouth opened. "Are you all deaf?!"

Now I began to get irritated. What right did he have to just come around and order us to move aside. We lived here. He didn't.

"We're not deaf, Mister," I said. Abby had snuck up and stood between Ziva and me. She snuck her hand into mine discretely.

"What's your problem then? I said move!" he thundered.

We all remained in place.

"We will not move for an animal abuser like you!" Ziva suddenly leaned forward a bit and yelled. I looked at her and saw her face blanch as she realized her own mistake.

The man's yellow eyes fell on Ziva. "You little…" he said. "You have my dog! Where is she?! I want her back right now!" he took a threatening step forward and Tim and Abby stepped back.

"I…I do not know what you are talking about." Ziva tried, glancing worriedly around as if looking for something to grab to defend herself with.

"The hell you don't, you little brat! You have until the count of three to make her appear or I will become really unpleasant."

"What the hell have you been up until now?!" I yelled.

"Tony, don't..." Abby pleaded with trembling voice.

"What, Abby? I'm right." I threw my hands, palms up, towards the sky. "Go," I whispered discretely to Ziva without moving my lips.

And she did go. Through the gate and into the back yard she went, fast as a panther.

"Hey, come here!" the man yelled and took off after her. He was pretty fast, but Ziva was faster. I hadn't thought he would follow her into the back yard, but he did. He probably didn't know there were too federal agents living there with us. Ziva ran in below the maple tree and he followed. She circled the tree and he did the same. She came out and disappeared behind Gibbs work shed and he followed behind there as well and they emerged on the other side. Abby started to cry and Tim stood frozen in place. I wasn't sure if I should go get Gibbs or Jenny or help her myself. This guy was furious and even though Ziva was fast she would sooner or later get tired and slow down. What if he didn't become tired.

**Inside the kitchen**

"So then I got off the ship from Africa and…" Mrs. Tapps' mirth filled voice trailed off in the middle of her story and a frown appeared on her face. "Did you hear something?"

"Yeah, I did." Gibbs got up from the table and over to the door leading to the porch to look out. At first he didn't see anything. Then he saw Ziva practically fly past at the speed of lightening. In pursuit was a much bigger figure dressed in black. Gibbs didn't even take the time to ponder why the occurrence before him was happening; his hand just immediately fell on the door handle and pushed it down, opening the door a crack. But before he could rush outside a bark made him spin around. A white furry cloud dashed into the room at full speed. It jumped onto the empty chair by the table and onto the table filled with tea cups, saucers, green porcelain tea pot and oatmeal cookies. Everything came crashing everywhere in the kitchen as the furry thing managed to knock the round table over with a bang on its way down. Mrs. Tapps yelled and Jenny stood shell shocked with her hands on top of her head.

"A dog!" she shrieked. "Jethro!"

Gibbs who stood with the door open didn't have time to react before the dog was already out the door and half way across the small lawn outside. She headed straight for the maple tree.

**Ziva's POV:**

I heard myself yell and then felt the grass underneath my hands and knees as I hit the ground. I had tripped over a tree root underneath the maple tree. Why had I not noticed that stupid root before? I felt two hands grab me and roughly stand me up. The hands did not let go and they spun me around. There I was standing face to face with the angry rugged man in black. He must have dropped the cigar because it was no longer in his mouth. His thin lips were pursed together in anger. Wrinkles were under and at the corners of his piercing, yellow eyes which were wide open and glaring at me. He had each hand wrapped around my upper arms and suddenly my feet left the ground as he lifted me up like I was nothing more than a toddler. I kicked my feet, aiming for his knees but he held me so far away from his body that it was impossible to reach him. My head went from side to side as he shook me.

"Now you're gonna get it, you little thief." He said with a growl.

"Let me go!" I yelled with a loud voice. He stopped shaking me back and forth. "Put me down or I swear you will regret it, you big ogre!"

His face became so red that he looked like he was about to explode. For a moment I was afraid. But then I just felt anger again at the thought of him hurting my dog. His arms dropped some, closing the distance between my feet and his body. I took a deep breath and kicked my right foot up as high as I could and with as much force as I could muster. It went straight up his groin. If possible I think his face became even redder and he let go of me. I fell down on the grass, landing on my butt.

Then everything happened so fast. I saw him raise his hand, ready to strike me from above and I saw a white cloud of fur fly into his side, knocking him straight from his feet. It was the dog! Tumbling on the ground with the dog on top of him he tried to fend her off by grabbing the fur at the side of her head and holding her at arms' length.

"Away, Fang! Away!" he yelled, desperately. He managed to push her away but she immediately went for his leg instead and bit him there. "Aaaaaah!" he roared in pain and shot up and backhanded her across the nose. She gave a surprised whine. Quickly I got to my feet. I pushed aside a low branch and turned around.

"Hurry! Come!" I yelled to the dog and she looked over at me and stopped growling at the man. Then his leg came flying, trying to kick her, but she caught the movement and skidded to the side. There she sunk her teeth into his black boot instead.

"Aaaah! Stupid mutt!" he yelled and kicked his leg to get free.

The dog let go and ran. I held aside the branch so she could pass and then followed her out. Halfway across the small lawn we were met by Gibbs, shirt with paint stains flying in the wind behind him as he was crossing the lawn to get to us.

"Ziva!" he pushed me behind him and then spun around, grabbing my shoulders in a firm grip. "What's going on? Are you hurt?"

I shook my head. "No!"

"Where's that man who's chasing you?"

I did not have time to answer his question before he ordered me and the dog into the house and took off towards the maple tree. I remained in place for a second, watching his back as he went, but then I did as he had told me.

**To be continued**

**A/N: Please take the time to send a review.**


	26. Chapter 26

Title: Once Upon a Summertime

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.

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**CHAPTER 26**

**Confessing Secrets**

**The living room at eight o'clock P.M**

Gibbs took a seat in the arm chair next to the crackling fire place. The sound of the chair creaking a little as he sat down was the only other sound in the room at that moment. The four kids were very quiet, all mostly staring at the floor they were seated on in front of Gibbs. Jenny sat next to Gibbs on one of the kitchen chairs she had brought in. Next to Ziva lay the fluffy white dog that had suddenly appeared in their household. She was staring at Gibbs too, with her head tilted to the side as if trying to figure him out.

Gibbs now knew what had been going on these past few days. And he was not happy about having been tricked.

"Alright, all of you. Look at me." All four kids raised their chins just enough to look at Gibbs. "Explain," was all he said.

"Explain what, Gibbs?" Abby asked in a quiet voice, looking up at him with big, round innocent eyes.

"Tell us every little detail about what you've been doing to hide this dog from us."

Tim stopped scratching a mosquito bite on his knee. "Every detail? Are you sure?" he asked.

"Why?" Gibbs asked, unable to hide his irritation. "Have you done that much mischief that this will take all night?"

"N…n..no, no, Sir. Sorry." Tim lowered his eyes again.

Tony took over. "It's just that telling you every detail might take a while. Since…there are kind of a lot of them." Tony lowered his chin and studied the floor boards again. "We wouldn't want to bore you."

Gibbs leaned forward slightly in the chair. "I don't care," he said in a low voice. "Let's start from the beginning. Ziva," she looked up and met his steady gaze bravely . "When we couldn't find you the other morning you said you had been out in the tree house. Why did you lie?"

"Yes, it was untrue," she replied and chewed a little on her bottom lip.

Jenny stepped in now. "Well, where were you, Ziva? I know for a fact that your mother doesn't tolerate lying. We want to know what's been going on."

Ziva sighed. "I was in Gibbs' work shed." Her gaze shifted from steady to hesitant as if wondering if she should continue after having said that.

"And what were you doing in there, after I said you kids couldn't go inside without me?" said Gibbs with narrowed eyes.

"I…I hid the dog there the other night after I found her."

Gibbs could see they were moving closer to the ten million dollar question. "So, you found this dog?" he pointed at the animal on the floor, being patted by both girls at the same time on different ends of her fluffy body.

"Yes, Sir."

"Where?"

And Ziva dove into the story.

"I snuck out at night twice the first days here and ended up down by the pond." she started. "I wanted to look around the neighborhood and I really needed to be off by myself some, " she admitted and glanced at Jenny who was the more protective of the two Agents. "The second time I came down there I hid from that man, the one who chased me today. He came yelling, like he was looking for a dog. I hid under the bridge by hanging onto a board. When he had passed the railing broke as I was climbing up again and I was trapped hanging in mid air by one of my suspenders. I could not pull myself up but then the dog here appeared and rescued me. She helped pull me up."

Gibbs almost couldn't believe how much trouble these kids could get themselves into. First the airport where Ziva and Tony had wound up being chased by an airplane on the runway. Then the forest next to the adventure park where all four of them had taken off because of a dare and crossed paths with a snake. Now Ziva telling them of her sneaking out at night and almost falling from that bridge to her death or at the very least two broken legs.

"What about when Tim got mysteriously trapped up in the tree house?" Gibbs asked and crossed both arms over his chest. He directed his question mostly at Tony who swallowed visibly. "I told you I would find out what was going on eventually."

At first Tony seemed transfixed. He just stared at Gibbs with big eyes.

"Tony," Gibbs urged, reminding him that he was supposed to speak too.

"I…I tricked Tim up there as a diversion. So Ziva could sneak the dog into the house without being seen."

Gibbs nodded. "Mm hm. Kind of figured that."

Jenny ran her hands through her long red hair that hung loose around her shoulders. "Let me see if I've got this straight. You have been hiding that dog in the girls' room that long? What did you do with her when we were at the party?" Sudden realization spread across her face. "She chased that burglar away, didn't she? That's why he didn't take anything."

Gibbs and Jenny shared a look.

Tony bit his lip and glanced at Gibbs. Gibbs wasn't trying to be intimidating to the kids. But he did want the truth this time and intended to get it from them. All this keeping of secrets wasn't good for their relationship.

"Go on, Tony," Gibbs said.

"You're right, Jenny. The dog was here the night of the break in. She scared him away."

Tony and Ziva looked at each other and Ziva rolled her eyes a little and gave Tony a nod to continue.

"And before we all left for Ducky's we made a plan. The dog needed to be let outside once to go to the bathroom during the party…"he trailed off looking at the adults' faces, reading their expressions. "And I rushed back here when we were outside playing in the garden."

Gibbs gave tony a stern look which was all that was necessary to tell him he was not pleased with that plan.

"Tony, you can't run off on your own like that!" Jenny argued.

"Sorry," Tony mumbled.

Gibbs held up a hand. "There seems to have been a lot of lies surrounding that dog there," he pointed a finger at the dog and Ziva put a protective arm around her left leg. "And I've understood that she belongs to that man…"

"_Belooonged, _to that man, Gibbs," Abby put in. "She belongs to Ziva now. Right Ziva?" she spun to the side, almost catching Ziva in the eye with one of her pig tails.

"Yes, she does." Ziva turned to Gibbs. "Earlier today when he was chasing me he found out by accident that I had the dog. He wanted her back and I refused," she explained and patted the dog's head. "He hurt her, Gibbs. I could tell that night when I first met her. She is afraid of him. She hid from him and he yelled that he was going to beat her if she did not reveal herself."

Gibbs nodded. It sounded like the dirtbag chasing Ziva wasn't exactly an animal lover and he didn't think animals abusers were worth much leniency. But both him and Jenny were federal agents working for NCIS. They couldn't exactly encourage stealing.

Gibbs sighed and leaned forward, looking into the worried brown eyes of the eight year old girl in front of him. "Ziva…" he began. He reached his hand out to the dog for the first time and she immediately licked it with her rough tongue. He stroked the side of her head and she leaned into his touch. "This is truly a beautiful dog and I understand she has become very important to you." He leaned back and serious eyes locked on anxious, protective ones. "But she doesn't belong to you. She belongs to her owner."

Ziva sprung to her feet and the dog jerked at her sudden movement. "You cannot be serious!" she yelled. "You would give her back to someone who abuses her?! He will beat her!" she started pacing back and forth in anger, speaking angrily in Hebrew.

"Ziva honey, calm down," said Jenny with a worried look at the distraught girl in front of them.

"You…" Ziva started in a loud voice that sounded like it was about to crack at any moment.

"Sit down, Ziva," Gibbs said and she stopped pacing and stared at him, not used to his firmer voice. She took her seat on the floor again and Tony put a hand on her shoulder. Abby was hugging the dog with tears in her eyes and Tim had his bottom lip stuck out in worry of the situation. Gibbs cleared his throat. "I didn't say that was my final decision. Technically this dog belongs to that man. But showing up and chasing you across our back yard isn't exactly the best way to claim his dog back. So as long as he doesn't knock on the front door backed up with a local police officer and papers that say the dog belongs to him I'm not going to give her to him."

The sour expression lifted from Ziva's face and the rest of the kids looked up with surprise.

"However," Gibbs continued with a finger in the air. "That doesn't mean it's been decided you can keep her. You all hid her from us and haven't exactly been on your best behavior since that started."

"But Giiiiibbs…"Abby whined with pleading eyes towards the dog.

"He is right, Abby," Jenny cut in. "You can keep her in your room for now until we have decided the best course of action here."

The kids looked from Gibbs face to Jenny's, back and forth but they wouldn't find any leniency there. Gibbs knew they had to make a point. The kids spent an hour and a half cleaning up the kitchen prior to the talk with the adults. So, when they now dragged themselves upstairs to bed with the dog at their heels, they were four exhausted young ones. When they were halfway up the stairs Ziva turned around.

"Hey, Gibbs! When will you let us know your decision about…?"

Gibbs let his shoulders sag a bit and sighed with exhaustion. He then simply pointed upstairs. "Go!"

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**_To be Conitnued soon_**

**_A/N: Please send a review :) The next chapter is almost finished and will be out soon._**


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